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LOYOLA. 



^Ixje (Stmt %&xxc^toxs 

Edited by NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER 



LOYOLA 



THE EDUCATIO]^AL SYSTEM OF 
THE JESUITS 



BY / 

'/ 

THE REVEREND THOMAS HUGHES 

Of the Society of Jesus 






NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1892 



t\ 






COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS. 



\% 



PREFACE. 



In the following work on the Educational System 
of the Jesuits, I have endeavored to present a critical 
statement of the principles and method adopted in the 
Society of Jesus. The effort to explain the sources, 
process of development, and present influence of the 
system within and without the Order, has made of 
the first part a biographical and historical sketch, hav- 
ing for its chief subject the person of the Founder; 
while the details and the pedagogical significance of 
the various elements in the method appear, in the 
second part, as a critical analysis of the Batio Stu- 
diorum. 

The educational literature which treats of this sys- 
tem is very extensive. Various estimates and con- 
clusions have been arrived at, on the merits of docu- 
ments frequently referred to, for an exposition of the 
meaning and philosophy of the system. Hence, with 
the view of facilitating a clear and comprehensive 
judgment on the subject, I have thought it not in- 
advisable to quote accurately from such documents, 
omitting none which bore upon the matter, if only 
they were within reach. It so happens that, at pres- 
ent, a large number of the sources, regulations, and 
commentaries, heretofore rare and altogether out 
of reach, have been rendered easy of access, being 
embodied in the great work, Monumenta Germanice 
Fcedagogica, which is already beyond its tenth vol- 



vi PREFACE. 

ume. Three of the volumes so far issued are upon 
the Jesuit System ; they have been compiled by the 
late Rev. G. M. Pachtler, S.J. If the three or four 
volumes, which still remain to be issued by the Rev. 
Bernard Duhr, S. J., had been available, they too could 
have been laid under contribution for examples and 
illustrations. But perhaps the theme will appear 
sufficiently illustrated as it is. 

Besides the original documents, I have used no less 
authentic an exponent than that which the maxim 
of law approves : Consuetudo, optima legis interpres, 
" Custom, which is the best interpreter of law." 

While all that is oldest and most authentic has thus 
been made use of in explaining the Ratio Studiorum, 
the actual condition of pedagogics to-day is new, and 
so is the state of the question involved. Hence, to 
satisfy the requirements of the present, reference has 
been made not exclusively either to the customs or 
the learned documents of a former age. 

In a word, the object aimed at has been to indicate 
the chief traits which are characteristic of the sys- 
tem, and which may be suggestive in the development 
of pedagogical science. Whether such an object has 
been attained, so as to meet many questions which 
may possibly arise, and to satisfy the desire which 
actually exists, it will be for others to decide. 

THOMAS HUGHES, S.J. 

St. Louis University. 



CONTEB-TS. 



PAGE 

Preface v 



PAKT I. 

EDUCATIONAL HISTORY OF THE ORDER, 

CHAPTER I. 
Introduction 3 

CHAPTER II. 
Knight, Pilgrim, and Scholar 19 

CHAPTER III. 
The University of Paris. Rome 30 

CHAPTER IV. 
Colleges as Proposed in the Jesuit Constitution . 52 

CHAPTER V. 
Colleges Founded and Endowed 68 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Intellectual Scope and Method Proposed . 82 

vii 



viii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. PAGE 

The Moral Scope Proposed 98 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Ignatius Administering the Collegiate System. His 

Death 109 

CHAPTER IX. 
Subsequent Administrations 124 



PAKT II. 

ANALYSIS OF THE SYSTEM OF STUDIES. 

CHAPTER X. 
Aquaviva. The Ratio Studiorum 141 

CHAPTER XI. 

Formation of the Master. His Courses of Literature 

AND Philosophy 156 

CHAPTER XIL 
Youthful Masters 176 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Courses of Divinity and Allied Sciences. 

Private Study. Repetition 191 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Disputation. Dictation 208 



CONTENTS. ix 



CHAPTER XV. PAGE 

Formation of the Scholar. Symmetry of the Courses. 

The Prelection. Books 225 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The Classical Literatures. School Management 

AND Control 248 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Examinations and Graduation. Schedule of Grades 

and Courses 259 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
Conclusion 285 



Bibliographical Appendix 297 



Part I. 
EDUCATIONAL HISTORY OF THE ORDER 



LOYOLA 



THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF THE JESUITS 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

A LEARNED and elegant work, which narrates the 
rise and progress of Christian Schools, from the sixti- 
eth year of the Christian era onwards, ends its long 
journey at the date of the Reformation, and takes 
leave of its varied subject, and of its lines of Chris- 
tian Scholars, in these words: "We leave them at 
the moment when the episcopacy was recovering its 
ancient jurisdiction over the ecclesiastical seminaries, 
and when a vast majority of the secular schools of 
Catholic Christendom were passing into the hands of 
a great Religious Order, raised up, as it would seem, 
with the special design of consolidating anew a sys- 
tem of Christian education." ^ 

Two centuries and a half later, when the Society of 
Jesus had run a long course, from the date of the 
Reformation which had seen it rise, up to the eve of 
the Revolution which beheld it extinct, a General of 
the Order, Ignatius Visconti, addressing the Provincial 

1 Christian Schools and Scholars, by A. T. Drane; 1881; last 
chapter. 



4 LOYOLA. 

Superiors over the world, takes note of a new stage in 
the process of educational development : " The taste 
for letters now," he says, '^ is more keen and exquisite, 
and the number of literary schools has increased so 
much, that ours may no longer appear so necessary. 
For I may mention the fact that, besides our schools 
of polite letters, there were, for a long while, either 
none or very few. So that parents were forced to 
send their children to us, even if otherwise they did 
not want it." ^ 

This refers in a quiet way to what Leopold von 
Ranke states with more emphasis. Speaking of 
Grammar classes, the German historian says :. " Here 
also the Jesuits succeeded to admiration. It was 
found that young people gained more with them in 
six months, than with other teachers in two years. 
Even Protestants removed their children from dis- 
tant gymnasia to confide them to the care of the 
Jesuits." ^ Ranke narrates in the same place how it 
was "toward the universities above all that the efforts 
of the Jesuits were directed." And he describes what 
the results were in Germany. 

D'Alembert writes of their progress in France : 
"Hardly had the Company of Jesus begun to show 
itself in France, than it met with difficulties without 
number, in the endeavor to establish itself. The uni- 
versities especially made the greatest efforts to keep 
the new-comers out. It is difficult to decide whether 



1 On the Furthering of Humane Studies ; Monumenta Germanise 
Ppedagogica, vol. ix, p. 129. 

2 History of the Papacy, vol. i, hook v, § 3; Jesuit Schools in 
Germany. 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

tliis opposition is a praise or a condemnation of the 
Jesuits who stood it. They announced gratuitous 
teaching; they counted among their number cele- 
brated and learned men, superior perhaps to those 
whom the universities could boast of," etc.^ 

Speaking of the Protestants in the iSTetherlands, 
a chronicle, which reviews the first century of the 
Order's existence, records that "the Jesuit schools 
were expressly interdicted, under severe penalties, to 
all members of the Protestant communities. Even 
in a twelve-year truce which the Order partially 
enjoyed, a monthly fine of one hundred florins was 
still imposed upon all delinquents, or on their par- 
ents, who persisted in patronizing the Jesuit schools. 
To escape the fine, parents sent their children under 
an assumed name.- 

In every country, the same drama of struggle and 
contest evolved itself through two and a half cen- 
turies, till a momentous scene was witnessed. It was 
a scene of such a kind as seldom has occurred in his- 
tory; and never certainly was any similar event 
thrown into such relief by the sequel. The event 
which I refer to was a universal and instantaneous 
suppression of the Order; with consequences following 
thereupon which were exceptional, both in the world 
that witnessed it, and in the subject-body that suf- 
fered it. ^ 

The sequel in the world at large was that, a few 

1 Sur la destruction des Jesuites, par un auteur desinteresse, 
p. 19. 

2 Imago Primi Sseculi, lib. vi, Societas Flandro-Belgica, cap. iii, 
§ 1, p. 772. 



6 LOYOLA. 

years later, at the close of the eighteenth century, 
there broke out the great Kevolution under the lead- 
ership of men, of whom scarcely one had been more 
than seven years of age at the date of the Jesuits' 
expulsion.^ They represented in France the first gen- 
eration which had not been educated by the Society. 
The remote causes which overwhelmed the Order were 
the same that ushered in the devolution. But, among 
the immediate causes, assigned by historians to ac- 
count for the precise form which the great convulsion 
assumed, and for the date at which it occurred, is 
placed the dissolution of this Order. According to 
the Count de Maistre, who speaks of the political 
sentiment of his own times, all observers agreed that 
the revolution of Europe, still called the French 
Eevolution, was impossible without the preliminary 
destruction of the Jesuits. And, in keeping with this, 
it was equally a subject of observation, as being a 
palpable historical fact, that during two centuries the 
Jesuits had formed in their College at Paris, the elite 
of the French nobility; and that, only a few years 
after the expulsion of the Jesuit Masters, the same col- 
lege turned out the Eobespierres, Camille Desmoulins, 
Tallien, Noel, Freron, Chenier, and other such dema- 
gogues. This College of Clermont, or Louis-le-Grand, 
from which the Jesuits were expelled in 1762, had 
been immediately occupied by the University of 
Paris. The Ee volution broke out twenty-seven years 
later. 

Another sequel, not heard of before in history, 

1 Cre'tineau-Joly, Histoire de la Compagnie de Je'sus, torn, iv, 
ch. 3, p. 210 ; 3me edit. 1851. 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

affected the Society itself. Europe, having gene 
through the violent commotions which changed the 
old order of things into the new, reached the begin- 
ning of this nineteenth century, and found the Soci- 
ety alive again. This was in defiance of a political 
maxim, which we may admit with Baron von Hiibner, 
that in politics, in the affairs of states, in the life of 
all great social institutions, when once death super- 
venes, there is no resurrection. 

And now, at the end of the nineteenth century, the 
same forces of repulsion and attraction, of devoted 
love on the part of friends, of intense hatred on the 
part of enemies, have been seen operating as always 
before. It has become a commonplace in the philoso- 
phy of history, — this hatred which has been sworn 
against the Order of Jesus, and the multitude of ene- 
mies whom it has made. One explanation suggests 
itself to the Viscount de Bonald, — the presence in 
it, he thinks, of something good ; of that good which, 
as it alone is the object of the most ardent love, 
can alone become the object of the intensest hate ; 
and therefore has always made persecutors and mar- 
tyrs. 

The purpose of this book is to give an historical 
sketch, with a proportionate analysis, of the educa- 
tional development effected through the Society of 
Jesus. Others have taken different fields of Jesuit 
history to survey, either general and comprehending 
all the paths of external and internal activity, or par- 
ticular and comprising only parts of the history. Some 
of these particular views, especially in later years, are 
in the line of studies, and are most valuable contribu- 



8 LOYOLA. 

tions to the history of pedagogic development. None 
of them, however, happens to coincide with the scope, 
purpose, and form which have been designated for 
this ; as the Series to which it belongs, the Editor in 
charge, and the country for which it is intended, suffi- 
ciently indicate. 

The subject then is the educational system of the 
Jesuits, that system which technically is called the 
Ratio Studiorum. It requires no literary nor histori- 
cal ingenuity to centre all that has to be said about 
it in the personality and character of St. Ignatius of 
Loyola. I shall draw upon Jesuit sources of informa- 
tion, except when it will be necessary to state results, 
or give estimates, which imply commendation. Then 
I shall quote freely from sources outside of the Order. 
Otherwise, for the purpose of explaining and analyz- 
ing domestic matters, these extraneous references 
would be imperfect indeed. 

The situation, which met the military view of the 
cavalier, lately the knightly cai^tain of Loyola, was 
a new one, on an old field of battle. The demand, which 
it seemed to make upon tactical resources, was as 
intense as the political and religious crisis which 
created the situation. Erom the year 1522 till 1540, 
while Ignatius was prospecting the scene in Europe, 
and preparing to take an active part in it, he had time 
and the opportunities for observing, what precisely, 
at that epoch, were the accumulated results of all the 
Christian ages gone before ; and why the results just 
then were only what they were. The issue appeared 
fatally determined by social conditions around, which 
more than neutralized the Christianity visible. Edu- 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

cation, in particular, was laboring under the action of 
causes, which had begun to operate several centuries 
earlier, and which were then evidently working them- 
selves out to one final effort. That was the under- 
mining of Christian education. 

In this respect, it was the same question which had 
confronted the Augustines, the Basils, and Jeromes, 
of one thousand years before. But it was a different 
state of the question. ^ Augustine, the brilliant youth 
of Hippo Kegius in Africa, will serve as an instance 
of what the issue then had been. He had made him- 
self master of the very best results, which the public 
schools of the time were able to accomplish in the 
most gifted of minds. But he had lost his virtue. 
He lived to complain with bitterness, that it was 
accounted a grievous error to pronounce homo "a 
man," without the " h," but it was no error at all to 
hate a man, signified by the word, homo. The con- 
sequence with him was that, when he became a Bishop 
of the Church, he met the need of providing a Chris- 
tain education, by instituting in his own house a kind 
of school, for the moral and spiritual education of his 
clergy. 

Thus arose the cathedral or canonical school. So 
too, the cloistral schools came to flourish in the abbeys 
and the monasteries. And, even if these two kinds 
of educational centres had not also been, as they 
really were, in the Middle Ages, the preordained means 
for the salvation of learning in Europe, they would 
still have had reason enough for their existence, in 
the paramount necessity of continuing, for the tender 
age of youth, the ministry of a virtuous education. 



10 LOYOLA. 

Events took a new turn with the rise and progress 
of the university system. At first, the universities 
were mostly annexed to cathedral churches. As they 
developed, the cloistral influence waned. And again, 
as they developed still more, they presented phe- 
nomena which originated the subsequent system of 
the Jesuits. 

From the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, as 
many as sixty-six of these universities were in exist- 
ence ; sixteen of them are credited to Germany ; about 
as many to France ; and the rest to Italy, Spain, 
and other nations. It is not within my province to 
describe their formation, or the order of their foun- 
dation. They received their charters from the Popes, 
who used their power thus, and showed it under a 
form, which no age will be apt to depreciate ; least of 
all, our own. Addressing these habitations of "Gen- 
eral Studies " with the appellative, Universitas Vestra, 
the Sovereign Pontiffs sent them on their course, and 
encouraged them in every line of Theology, Law, or 
Medicine ; whether all these lines were followed in 
each centre, or respectively some here, some there. 
Orleans, Bourges, Bologna, Modena professed Law, 
either as their specialty, or as their distinguishing 
faculty ; Montpellier, Salerno, Medicine ; Padua, the 
Liberal Arts ; Toledo, Mathematics ; Salamanca, and, 
above all, Paris, general culture, Philosophy, and 
Theology. 

These universities became such well-springs of learn- 
ing, that for Theology the Bishops' seminaries prac- 
tically ceased to exist ; and, to acquire the general 
culture of the times, the children of the faithful no 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

longer turned to the monastic schools. Nay, in quite 
a contrary sense, the clergy and the monks them- 
selves, in pursuit of the best learning that the age 
could give, left their cloisters for a while, and betook 
themselves to the universities. They followed up 
that step by settling down there. Paris beheld the 
great old orders of Augustinians, Benedictines, Car- 
thusians, the Carmelites, the Bernardines, all estab- 
lishing monasteries or colleges ; no otherwise than the 
newest order of Trinitarians, which was chiefly made 
up of university men. Two institutes arose, those of 
the Dominicans and Franciscans ; who with men at 
their head, like St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaven- 
ture, placed themselves right in the heart of these 
intellectual centres; and they became bulwarks of 
sound learning, as opposed to the inanities of a false 
scholasticism. They kept the leaven of religion and 
virtue in the midst of what was not quite a perverse 
generation, but was most certainly, from whatever 
side we view it, a very dubious multitude, belonging, 
it is true, to a Christian generation. Consider the 
10,000 at Bologna, which was the centre for Law 
studies ; the 30,000 at Oxford ; or the 40,000, all at one 
time studying, or reckoned to be studying, in Paris, the 
acknowledged centre for Theology. 

An indiscriminate mass of humanity like this, 
pressed, thronged, and crowded together, stimulated 
with all the ardor, and alive with all the passions of 
youth, could not fail to be little better than a nursery 
for indiscriminate license. Whatever might be the 
vigilance of the Church, or however strenuous the 
exercise of legitimate authority, nothing in the usual 



12 LOYOLA. 

course of human society could prevent its becoming 
a prolific soil for the propagation of every species of 
error. And, as during three hundred years the in- 
tellectual and educational powers of Europe followed 
this course, the law of evolution asserted itself in 
many directions. 

On the one side, those tens of thousands of Chris- 
tian youths, who were aiming at all the posts of in- 
fluence in Church and State, and who, entering their 
native university, or journeying to foreign ones, began 
life there at as early an age as twelve or fourteen 
years, to remain in this environment some nine or 
twelve years more, became, as was natural, the living, 
swarming members of a state of society so dissolute, 
that successive occupants of the Papal See depicted 
the condition of things as one of moral contagion. 
In the manner of thought and mind which prevailed, 
no form of theoretic error was wanting. In philoso- 
phy, there was scepticism ; in theology, heresy ; while, 
in politics, Csesarism and absolutism became rife. 
Then, at the end of the fifteenth century, the Renais- 
sance came ; and one of the first things, which it ex- 
pressly and formally did, was to renew in life, art, and 
politics, the same old paganism, upon the ruins of 
which, so many centuries before, Christianity had 
begun its upward and laborious ascent. Newly 
fashioning then much of what was old, Christianity 
had augmented all this with so much which was new, 
that in a thousand years it had made a Eenaissance 
possible. And now the form of this Renaissance 
threatened its own ascendancy in morals and in life. 

On the other hand, the old spirit of conservatism in 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

religion, and of preservation in the matter of morals, 
maintained itself for a time, through, those bodies of 
religious men and clergymen, who had left the clois- 
ter or the seminary, to take up their abode in the 
secular seats of learning. It was this spirit which 
originated the latest and best development of the 
universities, that of the " college " system, established 
in their midst. Salamanca had twenty colleges ; 
Louvain, forty ; Paris, fifty. Still, in the final issue, 
there was now scarcely any reserve force of cloistral 
or episcopal learning behind the universities, and out- 
side of them. And the religious and the clergy 
themselves, who at best were not a little out of their 
element from the moment they migrated into the 
secular environment, conformed insensibly to the con- 
ditions in which they found themselves, and so far 
ceased to be the power they had been. 

Witness, in the time of Ignatius, the Paris Univer- 
sity, as described by contemporary records. " It was 
fallen from its ancient splendor. The bonds of dis- 
cipline had been gradually relaxed ; studies were aban- 
doned ; and with masters, as with scholars, all love 
of letters, and respect for the rule, had given place to 
sombre passions, to political hate, to religious fanati- 
cism and dissolute habits." ^ 

Here then we have two elements in the educational 
condition of Europe, which explain the rise of the 

iHistoire de I'llniversite de Paris, par Charles Jourdain, liv. i, 
ch. 1; quoted with other testimonies, in the learned work, Un 
College de Je'suites aux xvii and xviii siecles, Le College Henri iv 
de la Fleche, par le P.Camille de Rochemonteix, 1889; torn, i, ch. 1, 
p. 3. 



U LOYOLA. 

Jesuit system. One was the positive, concrete fact, 
embodied in that great developed system of university 
learning. The other was a negative element, the de- 
cline therein of the essential moral life. These two 
factors are not mere antecedents in the order of time, 
as being only prior to the method of Loyola. One of 
them, the university system, supplied the very mate- 
rial out of which his method and matter were taken ; 
yes, and the men themselves, the Jesuits who applied 
the principles of reform to education. The other fac- 
tor, which I have called negative, that decline of the 
essential moral life, was the adequate occasion, which 
prompted Ignatius to approach the question of educa- 
tion at all. For we may say with confidence that, if 
the universities of the sixteenth century were still 
doing the work which originally they had been char- 
tered to do, the founder of the Society of Jesus would 
not only have omitted to draw out his system as a 
substitute for them, and as an improvement upon 
them, but he would have done, what he always did 
with anything good in existence ; he would have used 
what he found, and have turned his attention to other 
things more urgent. He did use these university 
centres for his own young men, until he had better 
educational institutions, and a better method of his 
own in progress. 

Hence the educational problem, when it falls under 
the notice of Ignatius, presents itself as the identical 
one of old, that of moral regeneration. But it is a 
different state of the same question. In circumstances 
rendered acutely critical by the agitations of the epoch, 
social, moral, and religious, it was a favorite contem- 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

plation of his to look with compassion on men living 
like the blind, dying, and sinking into eternal depths ; 
on men talking, blaspheming, reviling one another; 
on their assaulting, wounding, slaying one another ; 
and all together going to eternal perdition.^ It was 
from this moral point of view that he descended into 
the arena of education. 

But before he can teach men, or mould teachers 
of men, or even conceive the first idea of legislating 
for the intellectual world, he must himself first learn. 
There are two fundamental lessons which he does 
learn, and they go to form him. One is that, among 
all pursuits, the study of virtue is supreme ; the other, 
that, supreme as virtue is, yet, without secular learn- 
ing, the highest virtue goes unarmed, and at best is 
profitable to oneself alone. He learns these two les- 
sons, not only in theory, but in practice. To accom- 
plish the purpose of the latter, he takes his seat upon 
the scholars' bench, and begins to learn with little 
children. Though he may not meet with brilliant 
success in the art of learning, still in the art of under- 
standing what learning is, and in the lessons of expe- 
rience, he becomes a finished scholar. He remains 
even then too much of a chevalier to give up a cher- 
ished idea of his about a spiritual crusade in the East. 
And it is only when thwarted in this project that, 
like a true knight, he simply turns to another side of 
the field. He stays in the West. He is still the 
Captain of a Company. But he becomes also a legis- 
lator among doctors ; and, amid his other works, he 
effects an educational reform. 

1 Exercitia Spiritualia. 



16 LOYOLA. 

In his whole campaign, we may discern two charac- 
teristics in the spirit of his movements. One is that 
of defence, the other that of advance. His method of 
defence showed itself in the reassertion of old prin- 
ciples, in the conservatism of morals, — a plan of cam- 
paign, which determines the whole frame of mind, 
and the social construction of the Company. It rests 
on the principle of upholding what is, and not moving 
the ancient landmarks. On the other hand, his ad- 
vance is towards the solution of the highest questions 
which can interest mankind. These formed part of 
the very object and direction of the Order's march. 
And so it came to pass, that his Company drew to 
itself that class of minds which are most powerfully 
arrested by the prospect of solving such questions, 
especially when times are agitated. His times were 
agitated, if any ever were, more so than our own, 
when the same questions still must dominate. His 
were times of wars with Turks in the East, and with 
Christians at home ; of battles lost and won, with 
their effects reaching into every household ; of royal 
and imperial administrations confused and over- 
thrown ; of new opinions without number ; of the 
Church losing ground along the whole line of the 
frontier, and withal new worlds looming over an hor- 
izon, where from the beginning of time the unknown 
had brooded in absolute darkness. At such a moment, 
"Defence and Advance," or as the Papal authority 
expressed it in the solemn instrument which chartered 
his Institute, Defensio ac propagatio Jldei, were stir- 
ring watchwords to men of parts, who felt restive 
under the inactivity and inefficiency of older methods, 
on older lines. 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

I will not pause to say, that the personal poverty 
and exact obedience, required in the new service, pre- 
sented no obstacles to the minds and characters which 
were otherwise attracted to his standard. The antece- 
dents of all antiquity seem to show that such condi- 
tions, to such minds, are rather an inducement than a 
check. And if one takes notice that to this was 
added, in the Order of Jesus, an absolute equality, 
whereby every formed member binds himself to accept 
no dignity within or without, or, at least, to affect 
no dignity at home or abroad, which will prejudice his 
full franchise as a member, then, perhaps, the attrac- 
tiveness of such a life, the conservatism and intense 
concentration of the Order, as well as the alacrity and 
endurance manifested in the service, will not appear 
inexplicable to the minds of this age, in which, under 
a very different form, the same equality is called lib- 
erty, is made to construct republics, to bring down 
monarchies, and develop some of the most potent agen- 
cies for unfolding the energies of men. Yet the lib- 
erty of this latter equality reflects but faintly, and as 
from a broken surface, the freedom of him, who hav- 
ing liberated himself from the shackles of the world, 
and from all solicitude as to his movements, office, and 
place, finds in turn, as the German historian expresses 
it, "his own personal development imposed upon 
him " ; ^ and, in the firm companionship of one aim, 
formation, and life, enjoys the manifold support and 
ready sympathy of individualities as developed as his 
own. 

I shall narrate, in the first part, the facts of Igna- 

1 Rauke, History of the Papacy, vol. i, book ii, § 7. 



18 LOYOLA. 

tius' career, so far as to indicate the stages of that 
magisterial art, by which he himself was formed, and 
which then he reformed in the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum. 
In the second part, I shall sketch briefly the history 
of the Ratio itself, and analyze the System as a theory 
and practice of education. 



CHAPTER II. 

KNIGHT, PILGRIM, AND SCHOLAR. 

The story of the cavalier wounded on the ramparts 
of Pampeluna has often been told. Loyola was not 
at the moment governor of the city, nor in any re- 
sponsible charge. But official responsibility was not 
necessary for him to see the path of duty and follow 
it. As one bound to the service of his sovereign by 
the title of honor and nobility, he retired to the 
citadel, when the town surrendered ; and then, when 
the ramparts began to give way under the cannonad- 
ing, he stood in the breach. A ball shattering the 
rock laid him low, maimed in both his limbs. At 
once the defence collapsed. Cared for chivalrously 
by those whose arms had struck him down in battle, 
he was transported with every delicate attention to 
his castle of Loyola. It was found that one of his 
limbs had been ill set. He had it broken again, to be 
set aright. Meanwhile, instinct with all the ambition 
of a knight, belonging to a chivalrous nation in an 
age of chivalry, he was not insensible to the charms 
of society and affection. And, out of a sensitive care 
for his personal appearance, he must needs have a 
protruding bone, which still threatened to mar his 
figure, sawed off while he looked on. In the loneli- 
ness and tedium of a sick-room, he whiled away the 

19 



20 LOYOLA. 

hours by dreaming of his ambitions and his aspira- 
tions, and he sought to feed them with suitable 
nourishment. He wanted a romance to read. There 
was none to be had. So, instead of the novel which 
was not forthcoming, he took what they gave him, 
the Life of Christ, and the Lives of some who had 
served Christ faithfully. The soldier of the field 
and of blood felt the objects of his ambition change ; 
he became a soldier of the spirit and eternal life. 
And, after the experiences of his bed of pain, and the 
protracted communings with another world, he arose 
another man ; he went forth a knight as ever, but not 
on an expedition terminating as before. An evening 
and night spent in the sanctuary of Montserrat, as 
once before he had passed a vigil of arms, when 
dubbed a chevalier by the King of Kavarre ; a morn- 
ing begun with the Holy Sacrifice attended and Holy 
Communion received, opened to him a new era ; and 
he went forth, bound novf by a new oath of fealty to 
the service of the King of Heaven. 

At the side of the altar in this sanctuary of Mont- 
serrat, the Abbot of the monastery, eighty-one years 
later, committed to a marble tablet the record of this 
event, for the perpetual memory of the future: 
''Blessed Ignatius of Loyola here, with many 
prayers and tears, devoted himself to God and the 
Virgin. Here, as with spiritual arms, he fortified 
himself in sack-cloth, and spent the vigil of the 
night. Hence he went forth to found the Society of 
Jesus, in the year MDXXII." 

He first looked about him to find a retreat, and 
immerse himself in the contemplation of time and 



KNIGHT, PILGRIM, AND SCHOLAR. 21 

eternity. It was a Saturday. John Sacrista Pascual 
tells us that his mother, a devout lady of Manresa, 
was in the church that morning; and, accompanied by 
two young men and three women, she was at her 
devotions in the chapel of the Apostles. A young 
stranger came up and accosted them. His clothing 
was of very common serge; for Ignatius had given 
away his knightly robes to a poor man. The youth 
looked like a pilgrim. He was not tall ; he was fair 
in complexion and ruddy in cheek. His bare head 
was somewhat bald. Altogether he was of a fine and 
grave presence, and most reserved in look. He 
scarcely raised his eyes from the ground. Coming 
up, he asked if there were a hospital anywhere 
which might serve him for shelter. Kegarding his 
noble and fair features, the lady, as became a Chris- 
tian woman, offered her services ; if he would follow 
her company, she would provide for him, in the best 
way possible. Courteously and thankfully he ac- 
cepted her offer, and followed the party as they left 
the sanctuary. They proceeded slowly ; for they 
noticed that he was lame. However much they urged 
him, they could not induce him to ride upon the ass. 
Three leagues away from Montserrat, they arrived at 
the little town of Manresa ; and he took up his resi- 
dence in the common hospital for the poor and pil- 
grims. Whatever alms or food was henceforth sent 
him first went to others, whom, in these matters, up 
to the end of his life, he always considered to be more 
in need than himself. 

He now entered on his probation of Christian vir- 
tue. In the mind of the Catholic Church, the degree 



22 LOYOLA. 

of virtue which he practised is that accounted heroic. 
As it is not for me to dwell on it here, I will pass it 
over with one remark. That which is accounted 
ordinary Christian virtue, resting as it does on faith 
and hope, on principles not barely natural but super- 
natural, is not very intelligible to the world at large. 
Still less the heroic degree of the same. Both how- 
ever claim to be estimated by their own proper 
motives and principles. When they enter iuto the 
very subject, which the biographer means to treat, it 
appertains to his art not to ignore the objective 
motives and reasons of things, as they operated in his 
subject. In the shortest monograph, like the present, 
we cannot separate from the work, which he did, the 
man who did it. And the man is made by his 
motives. It were bad literary art to describe feats, 
which are confessedly great, and not to find motives 
which are proportionate. 

Ignatius, after a year more or less spent at Manresa, 
took his pilgrim's staff and journeyed on foot to Italy, 
and thence to the Holy Land. It was in the spirit of 
the old Crusaders, whose chivalry had a charm for 
him up to the day many years later, when, with his 
first associates of the Company, he endeavored once 
more to cross over from Italy to Palestine. Had he 
succeeded on this later occasion, he would most prob- 
ably never have known the others who attached them- 
selves to him ; nor might history have busied itself 
with him or with them. 

At the date of his return from the Holy Land, we 
find that he has advanced already to the second lesson 
in the development of his future. It is, that mature 



KNIGHT, PILGRIM, AND SCHOLAR. 23 

in years as he is, and full of desires for doing good to 
his neighbors, yet neither does mere piety place in his 
hands the instruments for such work ; nor, if study 
alone can give the means of apostolic zeal, can he con- 
sider himself exempt from the law, that he must labor 
to acquire what are only the results of labor. He 
was thirty-one years of age, when he betook himself, 
after his night's vigil, to the cave of Manresa. He is 
two years older now. So, at the age' of thirty-three, 
he sits down on the school-bench at Barcelona, and 
begins his Latin declensions. 

Begrudging his studies the time which they demand 
exclusively, he mistakes the situation, and allows him- 
self the exercises of an apostolic life. At his age, even 
supposing his earlier pursuits to have been more in 
harmony with his present life of letters, he is not an 
apt pupil. However, he labors conscientiously. After 
two years spent at Grammar, he is judged by his 
teacher, who takes a lenient view of the case, to be 
competent for approaching his higher studies. 

He himself was dubious. His friends recommended 
him to ascend. He still hesitated. But, receiving 
the same favorable opinion from a theologian whom 
he consulted, Ignatius acquiesced, in accordance with 
his unvarying rule, to follow competent direction. 
How unfortunate this step was for the happy progress 
of his studies, but how advantageous for his experi- 
ence as a future legislator, I shall joroceed to show. 

Leaving Barcelona for Alcala, he meant to enjoy 
the best advantages which a great university could 
afford. He lived on alms as ever; and others lived 
on the alms which he received. It was the year 1^26. 



5 



24 LOYOLA. 

He entered upon the study of Logic, using the Summa 
of Di Soto ; also the Physics of Aristotle ; and he 
pursued besides the Master of Sentences. 

He had stayed only a year and a half in this rich 
variety of pursuits, scholastic as well as apostolic, 
when the novelties apparent in his manner of life 
ended by making him a suspected character to the 
ecclesiastical authorities. To a few, among the popu- 
lation of the city, his fruitful zeal made him dis- 
tinctly odious. The result was a juridical process 
against him, which issued in a complimentary ver- 
dict, the Vicar of the diocese pronouncing him and 
his companions quite blameless. But restrictions 
were imposed regarding his future ministrations, 
since Ignatius was not yet in holy orders. During a 
term of four years he was not to preach. After that 
time, his progress in studies would enable him to 
honor that important ministry, without giving offence. 
This was a deathblow to the aspirations of the stu- 
dent. He m-ade up his mind to go elsewhere, to the 
famous university of Salamanca; and he turned his 
back on Alcala. 

The time was soon to come for a pleasant revenge ; 
and apparently he knew of it long before it came. 
Just six years after the foundation of his Order, when 
he sent Francis Villanova to open a house at Alcala, 
not only did he find men of the university embracing 
his Institute, but, two years after that, the whilom per- 
secuted pilgrim received, in a single twelvemonth, 
thirty-four Doctors into the Society, all from that one 
seat of learning. The mere passing by of Francis 
Borgia, Duke of Gandia, who had become an humble 



KNIGHT, PILGRIM, AND SCHOLAR. 25 

follower of Ignatius, made the choicest spirits flock to 
his standard ; and, all over Spain, colleges sprang up as 
if from the soil. 

In Salamanca, where likewise he and his were to 
figure in the future, the personal history of Ignatius 
is briefly told. In ten or twelve days after his arri- 
val, he was thrown into chains. He spent twenty- 
two days in prison. When released, with the same 
commendation for himself and his doctrine as he had 
received at Alcala, but with a similar restriction on 
his action, he thought it was not worth his while to 
repeat the same experiences at the same cost. So, in 
spite of all the eloquence of dissuasion brought to 
bear on him by friends, he took a new departure, 
which seemed plausible to him, and therefore feasible. 
He would try his fortunes in another land, and con- 
tinue his studies in the greatest philosophical and 
theological centre of the world, the University of 
Paris. 

To any one who judged of things by an ordinary 
standard, the project was not feasible. War was 
raging between Spain and France ; the roads were 
infested with hostile soldiery ; many murders and 
robberies, committed on the persons of travellers, 
were recently reported. But these and other consid- 
erations of the kind had no weight with Loyola, to 
stay him in a course once deliberately ado^^ted. Ac- 
cepting some alms from friends at Barcelona, to 
obtain on the way the necessaries of life, he accom- 
plished on foot the whole journey from Barcelona to 
the French capital ; where he arrived at the beginning 
of February, a.d. 1528. 



26 LOYOLA. 

He has now had experience of prisons and chains, 
on the charge of teaching error, or of being a dan- 
gerous enthusiast. One of the calmest and coolest 
of men, who never acted, but he first calculated, and 
who never allowed himself to approach a conclusion, 
without first freeing himself from all bias and impulse, 
he had suffered repeated arrest for setting people 
beside themselves, for moving them to give up all 
they had in behalf of piety, or charity, and inducing 
them to go and live on alms themselves ; nay, per- 
haps throw in their lives, talents and acquirements, 
to serve others gratis. The founder of the Jesuits, 
himself the first of an Order which has the reputation 
of being the staunchest upholder, as well of authority 
in every rank of society, as of the truths taught by 
the Catholic Church, was put in chains, or arraigned 
by the ecclesiastical authorities almost wherever he 
appeared, though always acquitted as blameless. 

In a letter written at a subsequent period of his 
life to King John III of Portugal, Ignatius sums up 
his experiences, as including two imprisonments, at 
Alcala and Salamanca; three judicial investigations, 
at Alcala, Salamanca, and Paris ; later on, another 
process at Paris ; then one at Venice ; finally another 
at Kome ; — eight investigations about this one man 
in Spain, France, and Italy.^ Wherever he came, in 
after life, it passed as a proverb among the Fathers, 
that his appearance was the sure harbinger of a storm, 
soon to break out against them somewhere, in the 
social or religious world. He braved all this fury in 
his own manner, weighing as deliberately every word 
1 Genelli, Life of St. Ignatius Loyola, p. 351. 



KNIGHT, PILGRIM, AND SCHOLAR. 27 

he spoke, and measuring every step he took, as when 
he had stood in the breach of the ramparts at Pam- 
peluna. But his personal experience made him com- 
mit to the sacred keeping of the ^' Spiritual Exercises " 
an important principle of liberal and humane pru- 
dence. It is couched in the first words of his little 
book, to guide teacher and learner alike. He says : — 

" In the first place, it is to be supposed that every 
pious Christian man should be more ready to inter- 
pret any obscure proposition of another in a good 
rather than a bad sense. If, however, he cannot 
defend the proposition in any way, let him inquire of 
the speaker himself ; and, if then the speaker is found 
to be mistaken in sentiment or understanding, let 
him correct the same kindly. If this is not enough, ; 
let him employ all available means to render him 
sound in principle and secure from error." 

How far the personal experiences of its founder 
attached by a law of heritage to his Order, I can 
hardly undertake to describe. But, just for the sake 
of completing the family picture, I will mention the 
heads of a doleful list, which an historian of the Soci- 
ety catalogues. He enumerates, as objects of attack 
and misrepresentation, the founder himself, the name 
of the Society of Jesus, the dress, rules, manners, 
books, doctrine, schools, sermons ; the poverty, obedi- 
ence, gratuitous service of the Jesuits ; that they 
affected a kind of literary empire, under the spur of 
an intolerable ambition ; that they were lightly tinc- 
tured, and had just sipped of many things, of which 
they had nothing solid to offer ; yes, that they wanted 
to have it believed there was no sanctuary of the 



28 LOYOLA. 

Muses, no shrine of sacred or human wisdom in exist- 
ence, outside of their own colleges; that, from these 
offices of theirs, all arts and sciences came forth, done 
up in the best style. " In fine, whatever they do or 
don't do, granted that there are many false charges 
which their enemies concoct against them, — things 
too extreme to be believed, — granted that they are 
acquitted of many vices laid to their account, never 
certainly will they escape the suspicion, at least, 
which these charges excite." ^ We believe it. There 
is a good homely English proverb which expresses 
the very same idea — about the happy adhesiveness 
of a clayey compound when cleverly thrown. 

This retrospect of history was taken, exactly one 
hundred years after the foundation of the Order. 
The story had begun some thirteen years before it 
was founded. AVhen Ignatius became a responsible 
leader w^ith associates, he had recourse more than once 
to the process of justice, to clear his reputation in full 
form. But, beyond the cases which rendered such 
defence prudent and necessary, his practical policy 
was expressed in a practical maxim, which after him 
his successor, James Laynez, had often in his mouth : 
Deus faxit ne unquam male loquantur et vera clicant ! 
" God grant they never talk ill of me and be saying 
the truth ! " Indeed, as there is no use in trying 
to change men, for they will never be born anew, 
Ignatius looked rather in another direction for the 
solution of difficulties ; expecting that troubles, which 
defied other treatment, might still not survive their 
authors. Speaking of "a powerful adversary, who was 
1 Imago Primi Sseculi, lib. iv, cap. ix, pp. 521-2 ; De Calumniis. 



KNIGHT, PILGRIM, AND SCHOLAR. 29 

raising a great storm at Toledo and Alcala, and whom 
it took the royal council and then a brief from the 
Pope to quellj Ignatius said of him to Ribadeneira: 
"He is old, the Society is young; naturally the 
Society will live longer than he will." The same dig- 
nitary, suppressed though he was, rose again in vio- 
lent opposition. Whereupon Jouvancy makes the 
apt remark : " So difficult is it for even the most emi- 
nent men, and so rare a thing, when once they have 
conceived a notion, to get it out of their heads again ! "^ 
Ko, men are not born anew. 

It is time now to contemplate Ignatius of Loyola 
at Paris, where some of the most precious elements 
in his educational experience are to be acquired. 

1 Jouvancy, Epitome Hist. S. J., p. 168, ad annum 1551. 



CHAPTEK III. 

THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. ROME. 

Voluntary poverty, the austerest manner of life, 
the ungrateful labor of studies, and the perpetual self- 
discipline of a mind like his, ever bent on lofty- 
thoughts and endeavoring to dominate the very first 
movements of his soul, all these conditions, added to 
the climate and the nature of the situation in which 
Ignatius found himself at Paris, brought such a strain 
to bear on his broken-down constitution, that, to keep 
up his course at all, he had to interrupt it awhile, and 
give some relief to his overtaxed body, or, as he held 
it to be, his "beast of burden." 

And what about the studies themselves ? If they 
had been a brilliant success thus far, they could 
scarcely have outlived such conditions of existence. 
As it was, they were as good as if they had never 
begun; or somewhat worse. He had gone about 
them the wrong way. Whatever solidity of learning 
he had kept objectively in view, something else, 
equally important with solidity, had been unwittingly 
omitted. That was a good method. Logic, Philos- 
ophy, and Theology, all taken up together, and with 
such compendious haste, now went together in his 
mind like a machine out of joint; and his speed was 
nil! The Latin language itself, the indispensable 

30 



THE UNIVEHSITY OF PARIS. ROME. 31 

vehicle of all learning, was just so far possessed by 
him as to show him that, to be of any real use, it had 
better be commenced all over again. 

Here his character asserted itself. And in no par- 
ticular of his life is he more like himself, more 
thorough, more of a brave cavalier, " governing him- 
self, in great things and small, by reasons most high," 
than when, having little facility for such pursuits, 
and less inclination, he makes up his mind, after a short 
breathing spell, to sit down again at the age of thirty- 
seven years, and resume his Latin declensions ! In 
the college of Montague, he spends about two years 
acquiring this tongue. Meanwhile, he tries various 
plans to find wherewithal to live. 

I need not dwell on the nature of this great centre 
into which Ignatius had penetrated, an unknown 
stranger, ]ust one of its tens of thousands of scholars. 
It had more than two scores of colleges. To this, 
the queen of universities, though she w^as going to be 
no kind alma mater to him and his Order, still the 
recollections of Loyola in his future legislation would 
always turn back with reverence. His first Profes- 
sors for the Roman College, the typical institution 
of the Society, would be taken from those of his 
men wdio were Doctors of this university. And, 
whatever might be the moral condition and the relig- 
ious lassitude of the university men, as compared 
with this penniless stranger, in 1529, occasions were 
to come in after times, when they showed themselves 
not unworthy of the enemy whom they fought to the 
death. When the plague of 1580 made a desert about 
them, the university men and the Jesuits, otherwise 



32 LOYOLA. 

never seen together, save in the lists and face to face, 
now were everywhere, and fell fast, side by side on 
the field of Christian charity. 

For the understanding of the Jesuit system, in its 
origin and its form, attention must always be paid, 
in the first place, to the kinship subsisting between 
it and the Paris University. There are, besides, many 
other degrees of relationship, which do not go unac- 
knowledged, in the formation of the Ratio Studiorum. 
The system of the English universities may be 
recognized in the line of ancestry. Whatever was 
best anywhere enters the pedigree ; as Lord Bacon 
takes note, when delivering himself like a good phil- 
osopher, but also like a good Protestant, he eulogizes 
and stigmatizes in the same breath: "The ancient 
wisdom of the best times," he says, " did always make 
a just complaint, that states were too busy with their 
laws, and too negligent in point of education ; which 
excellent part of the ancient discipline hath been in 
some sort revived, of late times, by the colleges of the 
Jesuits ; of whom, although in regard of their super- 
stition I may say, ^ quo meliores, eo deteriores' ; yet in 
regard of this, and some other points concerning 
human learning and moral matters, I may say, as 
Agesilaus said to his enemy Pharnabaus, ' Talis quum 
sis, utinam noster esses. ^ '^ ^ 

In the University of Paris, then, as his real alma 
mater, Ignatius commenced his course of Philosophy 
in the year 1529. He finished it by standing success- 
fully the severe examination, called examen lapideurrij 

1 Advancement of Learning, book i; Philadelphia edit. 1841, vol. 
i, p. 167. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. ROME. 33 

^''the rocky test," considered the most searching of all 
in the Paris Academy. He thus became a Master of 
Arts, after Easter, a.d. 1534; having become Licen- 
tiate in the previous year. Particulars about his four 
examiners in the " rocky test,'^ his graduation, the de- 
grees of his companions, with the dates, as found in 
the Paris records, are given by the Bollandists. ^ 

He now entered on his theological studies. It was 
evident that the obstructions, which had thwarted so 
many of his efforts heretofore, were disappearing one 
by one. And more than that ; the means were being 
placed in his hands for the great work before him. 
These means were a company of men. He was in the 
midst of a devoted little band, each one of whom he 
had won individually. They were Peter Lef^vre and 
Francis Xavier; James Lainez and Alphonsus Sal- 
meron, both of them mere youths ; there were Claude 
Le Jay, John Coduri, Nicholas Bobadilla, Simon Kod- 
riguez; and lastly, the only one who at this time 
was a Priest among their number, Pasquier Brouet. 
Among these, never at their head though considered a 
father by all, never leading the way, though on that 
account showing himself the more effectively a leader, 
Ignatius was all in al] to each one of them. He 
had previously acquired some valuable experience in 
selecting and forming companions. But such as had 
gathered round him in Spain were no longer with him. 
Each one of his present party was a picked man. 

When six of them were sufficiently advanced, he 
and they held a solemnity, which was the real birth- 
day of the Society of Jesus. On the fifteenth day of 
1 Month of July, torn, vii ; auct. J. P., § xviii, pp. 443-4. 



34 LOYOLA. 

August, 1534, tliey took a vow, in the church of the 
Blessed Virgin, at Montmartre in Paris. They bound 
themselves to renounce all their goods by a given date, 
and betake themselves to the Holy Land ; failing in 
that, they would throw themselves at the feet of the 
Sovereign Pontiff, and offer him their absolute service. 
Meanwhile they pursued their studies ; and, as each 
of the two following years brought round the fifteenth 
day of August, it found them in the same place, and 
with the same solemnit}^, and with an enlarged num- 
ber, renewing this vow. The legal birthday of the 
Order came only with the Papal charter on Septem- 
ber 27, 1540. 

I shall pass over the movements of Loyola, when 
bidden to go and recuperate in his native climate. He 
returned to Spain, in 1535, leaving his companions 
to study till 1537 ; and he settled the affairs of his 
young Spanish associates at their homes. All, when 
the time came, disposed of their goods in a summary 
way. They gave to the poor, reserving nothing, 
except what would pay their way to Venice, and 
thence to the East. Their principle was, Dispersit, 
cleclit pauperihus, " He hath distributed, he hath given 
to the poor." Besides this, Xavier, at the date ap- 
pointed, gave up the last stage of his theological 
studies, and resigned the glory of receiving the Doc- 
tor's cap in Paris ; the brilliant young Professor sac- 
rificed the one thing which had appealed most power- 
fully to his ambition and imagination. Laynez was 
recuperating from a severe illness, and could do 
scarcely more than inove. Nevertheless they are 
all in Venice, when the early spring of 1537 arrives. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. ROME. 35 

Ignatius himself^ meeting them there, has accom- 
plished the work which faced him thirteen years 
before, and which he had taken in hand with his 
Latin grammar. He is now forty-six years of age. 

There are three lines of activity, in which the abil- 
ity and energy of Ignatius Loyola stand out before the 
world. One is the capacity he showed as a governor 
or leader of men ; another is a similar competency to 
direct souls in the spiritual life ; the third is that, 
which we are considering at present, his legislative 
genius in the intellectual order. Admitting the 
innate talent which must have been the basis and 
foundation of his gift for governing, we may affirm 
of all the rest, that the best part of his sagacity 
and tact had been acquired by personal experience. 
He learnt how to act by suffering. He perfected 
his natural gift of guiding and commanding by 
first submitting to all the contingencies of human 
life. 

We may develop the meaning of this in the present 
matter, pedagogy ; and the meaning of it will help to 
unfold the subject. In quest of the necessaries of 
life, he spent intervals of his studious career in travel- 
ling from Paris to a great distance. He found him- 
self returning each year to Belgium, always on foot : 
he visited Eouen, and even reached London, to address 
the Spanish merchants there. It does not seem to 
have been parsimony on their side that kept him in 
such straitened circumstances. It was his principles 
which were not all in keeping with his conditions 
of life. He was endeavoring to combine the life of a 
student with absolute poverty ; and he aggravated the 



36 LOYOLA. 

inconveniences of such, a state of dependence by plac- 
ing no limits to the exercise of his charity. It was 
his deliberate choice ; for he fed his mind continuously 
upon the life and example of the King, to whom he 
had sworn his service, Christ poor and in labor from 
his youth. He spoke afterwards from the wisdom of 
experience, when he said, that in absolute penury the 
pursuit of science cannot easily subsist, and the cul- 
ture of the mind is impeded by the duties of provid- 
ing for the body. Hence he legislated that, though 
poverty was to be the basis of his Institute, still the 
members, as long as they were engaged in studies, 
should be set free from all care of seeking the means 
of subsistence. 

He had endeavored to combine a life of apostolic 
ministrations, though not yet a Priest, with that 
requisite absorption of mind, which alone can warrant 
scholastic success. And he saw what it had come to. 
The very esteem and love, which he entertained for 
the exercises of the higher spiritual life, interrupted 
with intrusive thoughts that application to study, 
which, was the duty in hand. In order that no such 
intrusion of even the most sacred pursuits should 
obstruct the onward progress of the members in learn- 
ing, he defined by rule the measure of such occupa- 
tions, as long as study was the main duty. 

Diseases weakened him. Therefore he took the 
greatest pains to protect the health of the members. 
While he lived, he did this with a personal and pater- 
nal solicitude. In his Institute, he provided the same 
for the future. 

On commencing his studies, he embraced many 



THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. ROME. 37 

branches at the same time ; and he had suffered all 
the consequences of disorder. Grasping at too many 
things, he lost all ; and he had then to retrieve all 
with loss of time. To obviate any recurrence of such 
costly experiences, he provided that the courses fol- 
lowed in the Society should have nothing disordered 
in them, nothing mutilated or curtailed; everything 
was to be in method and system; until, system and 
method having been carried out in every line, and the 
special good of each department having been secured 
sufficiently for the general plan, specialized perfection 
should be consulted, after all that ; and this was to be 
the appointed life of individuals, while a rounded and 
complete education remained the culture of all. 

Once in later years he let fall these words, relative 
to his early experience : " He would very much ques- 
tion whether another but himself, having to struggle 
with so many difficulties and obstacles in the course 
of his studies, would have given so long a time to the 
acquisition of the sciences." ^ Thus then was he op- 
pressed with poverty, without the satisfaction ot acting 
under orders ; suffering so many diseases, and yet look- 
ing neither to honor, dignity, nor other human reward, 
such as is wont to draw men on, and animate them 
under fatigue ; finding no pleasure nor satisfaction in 
the life of studies, an inducement which is so great 
an alleviation to mortals in the work before them. 
And, in all these respects, he was quite unlike the 
very men whom he singled out, and enlisted in the 
new service of devotion ; unlike Francis Xavier, who 
had seen with perfect indifference all his brothers take 
1 Genelli, Life of St. Ignatius Loyola, part i, ch. 8. 



38 LOYOLA. 

to their ancestral profession of arms, or to a courtier's 
life, while he himself, with the whole force of an 
ambitious soul, ran on successfully and brilliantly in 
his chosen career, as a Professor ; unlike Laynez and 
Salmeron, whose extraordinary gifts had made them 
Doctors of Philosophy and Divinity, while still, in 
age, little more than mere youths ; very unlike by 
nature to the gentle make of Lefevre, who began life 
as a shepherd boy, and ever retained a pastoral sweet- 
ness of character. Unlike all of them, Loyola, a 
soldier born and bred, and still true to his profession, 
discarded every consideration of taste, comfort, and 
convenience, in view of one objective point to be 
reached : through thirteen years he struggled towards 
it ; and, when that time of probation was over, he was 
a marked man. According to the law, that like 
attracts like, and like begets like, he was surrounded 
by a company of marked men, few if you count their 
number, many if you consider the type. His name 
was Avidely known, and favorably so. When he had 
been paying five times over the price of his daily 
bread, by travelling to Belgium, to Kouen, and Lon- 
don, and collecting there some Spanish florins, the 
event seemed to show that he had been but opening 
the door, here and there and everywhere, for his col- 
leges and universities in the future; albeit, if they 
came, adversaries came too, in proportion. But 
clouds and storms purify the air. When they come 
again, they will still leave the air the clearer for their 
coming. If the laws of human conduct are consistent 
in one way, they are consistent in another. The dis- 
turbance comes, but it does its work and goes. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. ROME. 39 

M. Cretineau-Joly, the popular French historian in 
our own times, speaking of events at a later juncture 
in the life of Loyola, makes the following observa- 
tion: ''Loyola," he says, "could apply to himself 
admirably well that proverb which says, ^When a 
Spaniard is driving a nail into the wall, and his ham- 
mer breaks, the Spaniard will drive the nail in with 
his head ! ^ " Loyola would have his idea go through 
at any cost. 

We shall now follow him to Italy and Rome". ^ 

In the year 1537, Rome was not quite the luxurious 
capital which had fallen under the sword of the Con- 
stable of Bourbon. The eternal city, whose Papal 
Sovereigns have left it on record from time imme- 
morial, that in no part of the world were they less 
recognized as lords than in their own city, had under- 
gone a purification, which differed, not substantially, 
but only in its consequences, from what was called 
for, over half the countries of Europe. The riches, 
the luxury, the idleness, which elsewhere resulted in 
a complete change of religious history for many of 
the northern nations, had here brought about a catas- 
trophe which sobered minds. And no longer an 
exclusive absorption in elaborate sloth prevented a 
large portion of the influential element here from 
doing honor to the Queen of European civilization, by 
doing good to the world. 

All roads still led to Rome. Thence too all roads 
diverged. It was still true, that Avhatever commanded 
this centre could reach out, if only by the force of 
prestige, to the uttermost limits of the civilized 
domain. Whatever this venerable source of author- 



40 LOYOLA. 

ity chartered to go on its way, in strength and bene- 
diction, had reason to behold, in the privilege so 
bestowed, the auspicious opening of a useful career, 
intellectual or moral. It is so to-day, though not in 
a temporal sense. The charter, or confirmation, or 
bull, which conveys the recognition of the Church's 
Head to a project, a cause, or an institute, bestows 
thereupon a moral power which naturally transcends 
every franchise in the gift of the most powerful gov- 
ernments. Compared with it, they are local. And, 
standing no comparison with it, under a moral aspect, 
they do not pretend to such a power as touches the 
inner conscience of nations. 

When therefore Ignatius turned to the great 
Rome, he was like the skilful commander whom he 
describes in a certain place ; he was possessing him- 
self of the vantage-ground, taking the citadel. It 
would be more correct to say, as all history avers, 
that he meant to defend that citadel, the See of Rome. 
He had waited nearly a year at Venice, to carry out 
his project of voyaging to Jerusalem. War made that 
impossible. Now, in accordance with the express pro- 
viso in their vow, he and his companions repaired to 
Rome, and offered their services to the spiritual head 
of Christendom. 

To win approbation for a new religious institute was 
no easy matter ; then less than ever. The recent 
occurrences in the North had been due to this, among 
other moral causes, that the later history of certain 
religious orders, which centuries before had begun one 
way, latterly had taken a novel and fatal turn. Still, 
in spite of criticism and hostility, chiefly in the high 



THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. ROME. 41 

places, Ignatius received at length the approving word 
of the Pope ; and his Institute was chartered with a 
bull of confirmation. Henceforth, the evolution of 
events belongs to general history. What concerns us, 
in this chartering of the plan and Institute of Igna- 
tius Loyola, is the new character it gave to educa- 
tion, and the epoch it made in the intellectual history 
of the world. To explain this matter, we may follow 
briefly the deliberations which the Fathers held, and 
in the course of which, among other conclusions, they 
came to decide upon reestablishing education. 

It was the fourth of May, 1539, a year and a half 
before their services were finally accepted by the 
Pope. Such of the ten members as were then in 
Kome occupied themselves, after the labors of the 
day, in nightly deliberations, which were protracted 
during three months. They decreed, among other 
things, that they should teach boys and uncultured 
persons the necessary points of Christian doctrine, at 
least once a year, and for a definite time. This decree 
obviously is not about that secondary and superior 
education of youth, which is our subjeot ; neither does 
it concern primary education, of which there is no- 
where question in the Institute of the Jesuits. But, 
as the Constitution subsequently drawn up says, 
" this work of charity, in the Divine service, is more 
likely to be consigned to oblivion, and to pass into 
disuse, than other duties more specious in their char- 
acter, as preaching," etc.-^ 

Teaching Christian doctrine pertains to the duty of 

1 Bollandists, as above, nn. 313-4 ; ibid., Suarez, Nigronius, and 
otbers. 



42 LOYOLA. 

those who have the ordinary care of souls. No 
duty of this kind, as belonging to the ordinary sphere 
of the Church's clergy, would Ignatius assume as 
characteristic of his own Institute, except this one. 
He was, indeed, more than ready to throw in his con- 
tribution of personal zeal and charity, for the further- 
ance of all kinds of benevolence and beneficence. 
Personally, at the cost of untiring activity, he sowed, 
as Genelli well observes, the first seeds of those ame- 
liorations in social life, and of those humane institu- 
tions, which are so marked a feature of later ages.^ 
He was an original benefactor of humanity at the 
turning-point of modern history, which has since 
become an era of social organized beneficence. Urban 
VIII solemnly testifies, that Ignatius organized homes 
for orphans, for catechumens, for unprovided women ; 
that the poor and the sick, that children and the igno- 
rant and prisoners, were all objects of his personal solic- 
itude.^ These works of zeal and charity became, in 
subsequent years, the specific reasons of existence for 
various other communities, which rose in order and in 
number. But he did not adopt them as specific in his 
Institute ; nor did he assume as characteristic anything 
within the province of the ordinary parochial clergy, 
except the teaching of Christian doctrine to boys and 
uncultured persons. The rest he attended to, while 
not provided for ; ready to drop them, when provision 
should be made for them. 

But he did assume five works, which were outside 
of the ordinary lines ; and, among them, is the subject 

1 Genelli, Life of St. Ignatius Loyola, part ii, ch. 13. 

2 Bulla canouiz. S. Ign. de Loyola, § 22. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. ROME. 43 

of our study, the Education of Youth.^ As the selec- 
tion of all these specialties for his Institute reveal 
the commander's eye resting on a field, where many 
issues were being fought out, so, in particular, his 
selection of education as a specialty betrayed the 
same masterly thought, in the institutions he pro- 
jected, in the scope he proposed, and, above all, in the 
formation of his teachers. 

There had been, among the Fathers deliberating, a 
difference of opinion, with respect to Christian doc- 
trine. Bobadilla had dissented from making that 
work the subject of a special vow; and the others 
deferred to him. But there was unanimity with 
regard to every other topic of deliberation, including 
this one, " the education of youth, having colleges in 
uuiversities." - 

As defined by Jesuit authors, the education of youth 
means the gratuitous teaching of Letters and Science, 
from almost the first beginnings of Grammar up to 
the culminating science of Sacred Theology, and that 
for boys and students of every kind, in schools open 
to all.^ Evidently these university men, who were 
engaged in drawing up the Institute, considered that, 
if the greatest Professor's talents are well spent in 
the exposition of the gravest doctrines in Theology, 
Philosophy, and Science, neither he, nor any one else, 
is too great to be a schoolmaster, a tutor, and a father, 
to the boy passing from childhood on to the state of 
manhood, — that boyhood which, as Clement of Alex- 

1 Bollandists, nn. 313-4; 317. 
Bollandists, July, torn, vii, 
N'gronius ; Bollandists, n. 317. 



44 LOYOLA. 

andria says, furnishes the very milk of age, and from 
which the constitution of the man receives its temper 
and complexion. 

It is requisite here to observe, that there was no 
such thing in existence, as State Education. Two rea- 
sons may briefly be mentioned for this, one of them 
intrinsic to the question, the other an historical fact. 
The intrinsic and essential reason was the sacred char- 
acter of education, as being an original function, be- 
longing to the primary relations of parents and child. 
States, or organized commonwealths, come only in the 
third or fourth degree of human society. It was 
much later, in that short interval between the extinc- 
tion of the Society of Jesus and the outburst of the 
French Revolution, that new theories came to be pro- 
claimed, as La Chalotais did openly proclaim them, 
of a bald and blank deism in social life, and therefore 
of secularizing education. Between deism and secu- 
larization the connection was reasonable. For, if the 
rights of God went by the board, there was no rea- 
son why the rights of parents and children should 
remain. All alike, the persons and ''souls of men," ^ 
fell back into the condition in which Christianity had 
found them ; they became chattels of the state, man- 
nikins of a bureau in peace, "food for powder'" in war. 

The other reason was an historical fact. For all the 
purposes of charity, mercy, and philanthropy, there 
were powers in existence, as part of the normal relig- 
ious life of general Christian society. They were the 
same powers that had made Christendom, and had 
carried it on so far as the Christian world, the same 
1 Apocalypse, ch. xviii, 13. 



THE UNIVEKSITY OF PARIS. ROME. 45 

to which, we owe the civilization of to-day. More 
than that. As there is not a single work of charity 
or mercy, say St. Thomas Aquinas, which may not be 
made the object of an institution, religious men or 
women devoting their lives as a service to G-od, in a 
special service towards their neighbors ; so, in point 
of fact, there were very few such objects which had 
not originated some service of religious self-consecra- 
tion in their behalf. 

Now, as operating on education in particular, the 
powers in the world were, as they had been, almost 
entirely clerical or religious. In the universities, 
there were clergymen and Eeligious. All the great 
institutions had the religious cast about them. The 
old ones have it still. Traces of it hang about Oxford 
and Cambridge. The Church founded them and super- 
vised them. Kings protected them. And the highest 
outcome of their schools was Divinity in its widest 
sense ; that is to say, the triple knowledge of God, and 
of man as signed with the light of God's countenance, 
and of nature as bearing the impress of God's foot- 
step. As it was in the universities, so, outside too, 
all pedagogic influence had rested with religious men. 

But no one of all these religious powers was bound 
by its constitution to this labor of education, which 
Loyola now, formally and expressly, assumed as part 
of his work. It is at this stage of history, that edu- 
cation enters into the fundamental plan of a Eeligious 
Order. This is a fact, and an epoch, of prime impor- 
tance in Pedagogics. 

Por, inasmuch as education entered thus into the 
plan of a Eeligious Order, it became the vocation of a 



46 LOYOLA. 

moral body, wMcli, while incorporated like other bod- 
ies, did not confine itself, like single universities, to 
limited circumstances of place ; it was a body diffu- 
sive. And so with regard to conditions of time ; 
though all corporations give an assurance of perpe- 
tuity, a diffusive body like this does more ; it multi- 
plies the assurance, in proportion to its own diffusive- 
ness. 

And again, inasmuch as the body which undertook 
the work of education was a religious one, bound to 
poverty, it guaranteed that the members would endow 
the work, at their own cost, with that which is the 
first, the essential, and most expensive endowment, 
among all others, — the labors, the attainments, and 
the lives of competent men, all gratuitously given. 
This endowment, which is so substantial, is besides 
so far-reaching, that no other temporal foundation 
would be needed, were it not that the necessaries of 
life, and the apparatus for their work, are still neces- 
sary to living men, even though they live in personal 
poverty. 

Thus then it was that Ignatius took in charge the 
secondary and superior education of the Christian 
world, as far as his services should be called for: 
he threw into the work the endow^nent of a Eeligious 
Order. This, as the sequel proved, meant the whole 
revival of learning. Lord Bacon bears witness to it 
in a few words, when he says, that the Jesuits "partly 
in themselves, and partly by the emulation and provo- 
cation of their example, have much quickened and 
strengthened the state of learning." ^ Father Daniel 
1 Advancement of Learning, book i, p. 176; Phila. edit. 




THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. ROME. 47 

gives some of the details in a summary way. He 
says : " The exclusively University regime of the late 
centuries replaced, for a notable portion of students, 
by a scholastic discipline much more complete ; Scho- 
lastic Philosophy and Theology renovated, through the 
care applied to prevent young men from throwing 
themselves too early into the disputes of the schools ; 
in fine. Literature and Grammar resuming the place 
they had lost in the twelfth century, and, over and 
above that, enjoying the new resources created for 
their use by the Kenaissance ; all this I call a capital 
fact in the history of the human mind, and even in 
the history of the Church." ^ 

After the time of Ignatius, other religious congre- 
gations, fortified with their own special means for 
respective departments of activity, entered upon the 
same general field of work. They were the Orato- 
rians, the Barnabites, the Fathers of the Pious Schools, 
the Brothers of the Christian Schools, and others 
whose names may occur in the course of this essay. 
And, for the education of women, inferior and superior 
alike, congregations of devoted religious women came 
into being, and opened their convents to supply the 
best and highest culture. 

Por fear that, in the execution of this plan, and in 
their other enterprises of devotion and zeal, any 
secondary intentions or results, with regard to power 
and office, might mar the purity of the work and 
defeat the main object, the same men, whose future 
under the generalship of such a leader was about to 

1 Pere Charles Daniel S. J., Des l^tudes Classiques dans la Societe 
Chretieune, cli. 8, La Concile de Trente; 1853. 



48 LOYOLA. 

open as one of transcendent influence in the civilized 
world, bound themselves by vow never to accept 
any dignity or office in the Church. Naturally they 
should keep aloof from affairs of state. In fact, it 
would be incompatible with their own purposes of 
literary and scientific competence, to leave themselves 
at the mercy of other men's views, and be drafted 
into posts outside of the Institute, and be placed in 
an impossible situation for working out the specific 
end intended. It would be suicidal too. Just when 
a man was capable of continuing his kind, he would 
be lost to the body, and be rendered incapable thereby 
of propagating his own type of eminence. Besides, 
without touching upon the inner reasons of the spirit- 
ual life, which made this resignation of all honors 
desirable, it is a fact standing out in clear relief, 
as history sketches the marvellous fecundity of an 
Order requiring such a high level of attainments, 
that many of the choicest souls have felt specially 
attracted to a kind of life, which at one and the 
same time satisfied their ideas of Christian perfec- 
tion, and cut them off from all the paths of worldly 
glory. 

And now, to mention in the last place another 
point, which is equally important for understanding 
the educational history of the Order, and to the gen- 
eral mind is equally obscure with some of those men- 
tioned already, there was introduced the principle of 
religious obedience. It was sanctioned by a unani- 
mous vote.^ The Fathers had concluded the first 
deliberation, whether they should form a society at 
1 Bollandists, auct. J. P., na. 293-7. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. ROME. 49 

all ; and they had decided in the affirmative sense.^ 
Then the question took this phase. If they were to 
found a closely-knitted society, they could do so only 
by assuming a strict bond. That was none other 
than a strict obedience. 

On this head, as on all others that came in order, 
they began the deliberation by reasoning, one day, 
in an adverse sense, all having prepared their minds 
to emphasize every objection which they could find 
against it. The day following, they argued in a posi- 
tive sense. The motives in favor of strict obedience 
won their unanimous assent. They were such as 
these : — 

If this congregation undertook the charge of affairs, 
and the members were not under orders, no one could 
be held responsible for an exact administration of the 
charge. If the body were not bound together by 
obedience, it could not long persevere; yet this was 
their first intention, to remain associated in a per- 
manent body. Whence they concluded that scattered 
as they would be, and already had been, in assiduous 
and diverse labors, they must be united by a strict 
principle of subordination, if they were to remain 
such a body. Another argued thus : Obedience begets 
heroism of virtue ; since the truly obedient man is 
most prompt to execute whatever duty is assigned 
him by one, whom, as by a religious act, he regards 
as being in the place of God, and signifying to him 
God's will : wherefore obedience and heroism go to- 
gether. 

This reasoning seems to be enforced by the history 
1 Bollandists, n. 292. 



60 LOYOLA. 

of all great nations, in the crises of their military and 
other public affairs. But, as is clear, the principles 
of religious obedience are of a different order ; they 
are on a higher plane ; and they reach much farther in 
time and eternity, than those of obedience elsewhere. 
Here then we discern, sufficiently for present pur- 
poses, the meaning and historical location of this 
Institute. The members have cut themselves off 
from the possession of all private property, by the 
voluntary engagement to poverty, and thereby they 
have prepared the endowment, on which education 
will chiefly rest, — that is to say, the endowment con- 
sisting of the men to teach, and their services tendered 
gratis. Position and dignity are alike rendered inac- 
cessible by an express vow of the members professed. 
Obedience keeps the organization mobile as a company 
of trained soldiers. And, if any observant mind, well 
acquainted with the course of human affairs, detects 
in these principles some reasons for success, normal, 
habitual, and regular, in the face of unnumbered obsta- 
cles, and of unremitting hostility, his view will be sin- 
gularly corroborated when he rises to a plane higher, 
and regards the same principles as " religious,'^ carry- 
ing with them the sanction of divine worship ; which 
I should be loath to call "enthusiasm," much less 
" fanaticism." These sentiments are never very pru- 
dent, nor enlightened, nor cool ; they are either very 
natural or are short-lived. A mild fever of fanaticism 
can scarcely produce high results ; and a high fever 
of the same can scarcely last three hundred and 
fifty years, with perpetuity still threatening. But I 
would call this phenomenon, in its origin, religious 



THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. ROME. 51 

devotion; in its consequences, a supernatural effi- 
ciency ; and, taking it all in all, that whicli is called 
a grace of vocation. 

On the 27th day of September, 1540, the Society of 
Jesus received from the See of Eome its bull of con- 
firmation, by which it became a chartered body of the 
Church. While these pages were being penned, the 
27th day of September came by, 1890. It Avas the an- 
niversary of that foundation, three hundred and fifty 
years ago. 



CHAPTER IV. 

COLLEGES AS PROPOSED IN THE JESUIT CONSTITUTION. 

The written rule about the system of education is 
found in a double stage of development. The first is 
that in which Loyola left it : it gives us the outline. 
The second is that in which Aquaviva completed it : 
this presents us with the finished picture. Likewise 
in the historical course of administration out in the 
world, the development is twofold. It runs its first 
course from Loyola to Aquaviva, while experience 
was still tentative. Its second course was subsequent 
to Aquaviva, when experience, having gathered in its 
results, had only to apply the approved form. This 
was subject thenceforth to none but incidental 
changes, as times and places change. And, for these 
contingencies, the application remained expressly and 
always pliable. 

Hence, whatever was embodied in the Ratio Studi- 
orum, as completed, had been the result of the most 
varied experience before legislating, an experience 
in the life of the Order extending over fifty-nine 
years. Whatever this universal experience had not 
yielded as a positive result, or as applicable to all 
places, was not embodied. Teachers are different; 
national customs vary ; vernacular tongues are not 
the same. With regard to these mutable elements, 
52 



JESUIT COLLEGES. 53 

the maxim of the Order in studies, in teaching, in 
conducting colleges, was the same as that which it 
proposed to itself in the various other functions of 
practical life. An exponent of the Institute states 
the maxim thus : " One should have a most exact 
knowledge of the country, nation, city, manner of 
government, manners of the people, states of life, 
inclinations, etc. ; and this from histories, from inter- 
course, etc." ^ General indications alone are given 
with regard to these variable factors. The same is 
done with respect to new sciences, which from the 
time of the Eenaissauce were felt to be approaching 
and developing. Subsequent legislation arises to 
meet them as they come. 

While the Fathers were carrying on the same delib- 
erations to which I referred in the preceding chapter, 
a resolution was taken to leave the drafting of a Con- 
stitution in the hands of those who should remain in 
Italy. Circumscribing the task still more, they de- 
cided to appoint a committee of two, who should 
address themselves to this work, and report to the 
rest. The general assembly when convened would 
issue the final decree. Whatever that should be, such 
of those present as might then be absent hereby 
endorsed it beforehand. 

Their small number of ten was already reduced to 
six members present, the other four being scattered in 
divers countries. They designated as a commission 
Fathers Ignatius and John Coduri. Soon afterwards 
Coduri died, and the rest were distributed through 
the countries of Europe, Africa, and the far East. 
1 Gagliardi. 



64 LOYOLA. 

During the following years, Laynez, who was for 
some time Provincial of Italy, remained more regu- 
larly than the rest within the reach of Ignatius. 
For this reason, therefore, besides several others, we 
may understand why Ignatius paid such a high tribute 
to this eminent man, when he said, as Eibadeneira 
tells us, that " to no one of the first Fathers did the 
Society owe more than to Laynez.'^ Whereupon the 
historian Sacchini observes : " This, I believe, he said 
of Laynez, not only on account of the other eminent 
merits of so great a man, and, in particular, for devis- 
ing or arranging the system of Colleges ; but most 
especially because the foundations, on which this 
Order largely rests, were new, and therefore likely to 
excite astonishment ; and Laynez, having at*command 
the resources of a vast erudition, was the person to 
confirm and commend them to public opinion. And 
that this praise was deserved by Laynez will appear 
less dubious to any one who considers that other 
period also, during which he was himself General; 
if one reckons how many points, as yet unshaped and 
inceptive, in the management of the Society, were 
reduced to form and perfected by Laynez ; how widely 
it was propagated and defended by him." ^ 

But to return to Ignatius. After ten years of gov- 
ernment, he gathered together in Rome such of the 
first Fathers as could be had, besides representatives 
from all the Provinces. Forty -seven members were 
present. He submitted to them, in general assembly, 
the Constitution as now drawn up, and as acted upon 
in practical life, during those ten years. The Jesuits 
1 Hist. S. J., 2da pars, Lainius ; ad aunum 1564, n. 220, p. 340. 



JESUIT COLLEGES. 55 

present did not exhaust the number of those whose 
express opinions were desired. That not a single one 
of the principal Fathers might be omitted in the de- 
liberation, he sent copies of the proposed code of laws 
to such as were absent. With the suggestions and 
approbations received from all these representative 
men he was not yet content. Two more years had 
elapsed when, having embodied the practical results of 
an ever-widening experience, Jie undertook to promul- 
gate the Constitution, by virtue of the authority 
vested in him for that purpose. But he only promul- 
gated the rule ; he did not yet exercise his authority 
to the full, and impose it as binding. He desired that 
daily use might bring out still farther, how it felt 
under the test of being tried, amid so many races and 
nations. Thus 1553 came and went ; and he waited, 
until the whole matter should be revised and approved 
once more by the entire Society in conclave. His 
death intervened in 1556. 

Two years later, representatives from the twelve 
provinces of the Order met together, and elected 
James Laynez as successor to Father Ignatius. Ex- 
amining once more this Constitution in all its parts, 
receiving the whole of it just as it stood with absolute 
unanimity, and with a degree of veneration, they 
exercised the supreme authority of the Order, and 
confirmed this as the written Constitution of the 
Society of Jesus. By this act nothing was wanting 
to it, even from the side of Papal authority. Yet, that 
every plenitude of solemnity might be added to it, they 
presented it to the Sovereign Pontiff, Paul IV, who 
committed the code to four Cardinals for accurate 



56 LOYOLA. 

revision. The commission returned it, without having 
altered a word. From that time, whatever general 
legislation has been added, has entered into the corpus 
juris, or " Institute '' at large, as supplementing or 
explaining the "Constitution," which remains the 
fundamental instrument of the Institute. 

In the Constitution there are ten parts. The fourth 
is on studies. In length, this fourth part alone fills 
up some twenty-eight out of one hundred and eleven 
quarto pages in all, as it stands printed in the latest 
Homan edition. The legislation about studies is thus 
seen to be one-fourth of the whole. It has seventeen 
chapters. In one of them, on the Method and Order 
to be observed in treating the Sciences, the founder 
observes that a number of points " will be treated of 
separately, in some document approved by the Gen- 
eral Superior." This is the express warrant, con- 
tained in the Constitution, for the future Ratio Studio- 
rum, or System of Studies in the Society of Jesus. 
In the meantime, he legislates in a more general way. 
And he begins with a subject pre-eminently dear to 
him, the duty of gratitude. Since corporations are 
notoriously forgetful, and therefore ungrateful, he 
lays down in the first place the permanent duty of the 
Order towards benefactors : then he continues with 
other topics. They stand thus : — 

The Pounders of Colleges ; and Benefactors. The 
Temporalities of Colleges. The Students or Scholas- 
tics, belonging to the Society. The Care to be taken 
of them, during the time of their Studies. The Learn- 
ing they are to acquire. The Assistance to be ren- 
dered them in various ways, to ensure their success in 



JESUIT COLLEGES. 57 

studies. The Schools attached to the Colleges of the 
Society, i.e. for external Students not belonging to the 
Order. The Advancement of Scholastics, belonging to 
the Order, in the Various Arts which can make them 
useful to their Neighbor. The Withdrawal of them 
from Studies. The G-overnment of Colleges. On Ad- 
mitting the Control of Universities into the Society. 
The Sciences to be taught in Universities of the 
Society. The Method and Order to be observed in 
treating the foregoing Sciences. The Books to be 
selected as Standards. Courses and Degrees. What 
concerns Good Morals. The Officials and Assistants in 
Universities. 

Keserving the pedagogic explanation for the next 
part of this essay, I shall here sketch some of the 
more general ideas running through the whole legisla- 
tion of Ignatius of Loyola; and, first, in the present 
chapter, I shall begin with his idea of Colleges. 

Choosing personal poverty as the basis on which to 
rest this vast enterprise of education, he did not there- 
fore mean to carry on expensive works of zeal, without 
the means of meeting the expense. Obviously, it is 
one thing not to have means, as a personal property, 
and therefore not to consume them on self ; it is quite 
another, to have them and to use them for the good of 
others. The most self-denying men can use funds for 
the benefit of others ; and can do so the better, the more 
they deny themselves. It was in this sense that, later 
on in the century. Cardinal Allen recognized the labors 
and needs of the English Jesuit, Kobert Parsons, who 
was the superior and companion of Edmund Campian, 
the former a leading star of Oxford, the latter, also an 



58 LOYOLA. 

Oxford man, and, as Lord Burghley called him, "a 
diamond " of England. Since Queen Elizabeth was not 
benign enough to lend the Jesuits a little building- 
room on English soil, but preferred to lend them a 
halter at Tyburn, Parsons was engaged in founding 
English houses of higher studies in France and Spain, 
at Valladolid, Seville, Lisbon, Eu, and St. Omer. 
Cardinal Allen sent a contribution to the constructive 
Jesuit, writing, as he did so : " Apostolic men should 
not only despise money ; they should also have it." 
And just in this sense was Ignatius himself a philoso- 
pher of no Utopian school. So we may examine, with 
profit, the material and temporal conditions required 
in his Institute, for the establishment of public 
schools and universities. I shall endeavor to put 
these principles together and in order.^ 

First, there should be a location provided with 
buildings and revenues, not merely sufficient for the 
present, but having reference to needful development. 

Secondly, these material conditions include a refer- 
ence to the maintenance of the faculty. The means 
must be provided to meet the daily necessities of the 
actual Professors, with adequate assistance of lay 
brothers belonging to the Order ; also to support sev- 
eral substitute Professors ; besides, to carry on the 
formation of men, who will take the places of the 
present Professors, and so maintain the faculty as 
perpetual ; moreover, to " provide for some more 
Scholastic Students of the Order, seeing that there are 
so many occupied in the service and promotion of the 

1 Chiefly from P. Eurico Vasco, S. J., II Ratio Studiorum Addat- 
tato ecc, vol. i, cap. vii, u. 33 ; a private memoir, 1851. 



JESUIT COLLEGES. 69 

common weal," These conditions also include " a 
church for conducting spiritual ministrations in the 
service of others." ^ 

Carrying out this idea, Laynez, in 1564, promulgated 
a rule or '' Form regarding the acceptance of Col- 
leges." He laid down the conditions, on which alone 
the Society would take in charge either a Latin 
School, requiring a foundation for twenty Jesuits ; or 
a Lyceum, with fifty persons ; or a University, with 
seventy.^ Twenty-four years later, Father Aquaviva 
drew up a more complete and a final " Form," distrib- 
uting colleges into the three classes, the lowest, the 
medium, and the highest. The lowest must have 
provision made for professing in the departments of 
Grammar, Humanities, Ehetoric, Languages, and a 
course of Moral Theology ; — fifty Jesuits to be 
supported. The medium class of colleges consists of 
those whose founders desire, in addition to all the 
foregoing departments, a triennial course of Philos- 
ophy, which begins each year anew ; eighty persons 
to be supported. The highest class is that of the 
Studium Generale, or University, in which, besides the 
above, there are professed Scholastic Theology, Sacred 
Scripture, Hebrew ; one hundred and twenty persons 
to be provided for. However, the countries of the 
Indies, as well as the northern countries of Europe, 
were not, for the present, brought under this ordi- 
nance.^ 

1 Monuraenta Germanise Psedagogica, ii, p. 71 ; Ratio Studiorum, 
etc., by G. M. Pachtler, S. J. ; Berlin, 1887. 

2 Ibid. Pachtler, p. 334 seq. 

3 Ibid. Pachtler, p. 337 seq. 



60 • LOYOLA. 

Thirdly, the locality is to be such that, in the ordinary 
course of events, there should be no prospective like- 
lihood of a deficiency in the concourse of students, and 
those of the right kind. As, on the side of the Jesuit 
Province, its educational forces are kept at least equal 
to the posts which it has undertaken to fill, so, on the 
side of the population, the prospect should correspond 
to this undertaking, and give assurance of filling the 
courses. Hence it was only in larger cities or towns 
that Ignatius contemplated the foundation of colleges ; 
as the distich has it, contrasting the different fields of 
activity chosen by different orders in the Church : — 

Bernardus valles, montes Benedictus amabat, 
Oppida Franciscus, magnas Ignatius urbes. 

That is to say, " The monks of Clairvaux loved their 
valleys ; the Benedictines their mountain-tops ; the 
Franciscans the rural towns ; Ignatius the great cities." 
This was the more obviously his idea, as we find 
him reluctantly granting permission for ministerial 
excursions through a country, if thereby the Fathers' 
influence in a great city be likely to suffer. He 
writes to Father Kessel, the Eector at Cologne, where 
as yet the Society had no college of its own, that 
''under the circumstances he approves of Kessel's 
making a short excursion through the province, pro- 
vided he and his companions are not long absent 
from the city, and do not sacrifice the main thing to 
what is accessory; but he does not give them per- 
mission to fix their abode out of the town, because 
places of less importance afford fewer occasions of 
gathering the desired fruit : and, besides, they must 



JESUIT COLLEGES. 61 

not leave so famous a university ; their exertions will 
be more useful for the good of religion, in forming 
scholars to become priests and officers of the State, 
than all the pains they may bestow on the small 
towns and villages." ^ Again, when in 1547 he had 
accepted the donation of a church, buildings, and 
gardens at Tivoli from Louis Mendosa, he found the 
place not suited to the convenience of scholars ; it 
was too near Eome, and yet too far; subsequently, 
the institution had to be transferred within the city." ^ 

Fourthly, in addition to these material and local 
conditions for the normal conduct of colleges, it is 
supposed that the external relations of political soci- 
ety are so far favorable, as at least to tolerate freedom 
of action on the part of this educational Institute. 
Such toleration was, as a general rule, not only the 
least that could be asked for, but the most that was 
enjoyed. 

These are the chief conditions, material and tem- 
poral, which Ignatius requires. They give him a 
footing to commence his work, and allow the animat- 
ing principles of his Institute to come into play. The 
animating principles, to which I refer, may be reduced 
to three brief heads : First, an intellectual and moral 
scope, clearly defined, as I shall explain in the follow- 
ing chapters. Secondly, the distinct intention to pro- 
mote rather the interests of public and universal order 
and enlightenment, than a mere local good of any city, 
country, province. Thirdly, a tendency in the intel- 
lectual institution itself to become rather a great one 

1 Genelli, part ii, ch. 8. 

2 Jovivaucy, Epitome Hist. S. J., Anno Christi, 15i7. 



62 LOYOLA. 

than a small one, witli more degrees of instruction, 
more and more eminent Professors, a greater number 
of the right kind of scholars.^ 

As to the forces available for all this, and the pro- 
portion of colleges to be manned in perpetuity, the 
mind of Ignatius was most express, and became more 
fixed from day to day. " Cut your cloak according to 
your cloth," he said to Oliver Manare, when the lat- 
ter, on going to establish a college at Loretto, asked 
how he should distribute his men. Ignatius preferred 
to refuse Princes and Bishops their requests, excusing 
himself on the score of limited resources, than com- 
promise the reputation of the Society, by an ill-ad- 
vised assent.^ And he said, as Polanco his secretary 
tells us, that "if anything ought to make him wish 
to live a longer time, it was that he might be severe 
in admitting men into the Order." ^ He did not want 
to have many members in the Society ; still less, too 
many engagements. 

Having stated thus briefly the material conditions 
required by Ignatius, and the animating principles 
or motives which determined him, we are in a posi- 
tion to discern more distinctly the central object 
of his attention, that for which the material conditions 
were provided, that by which the ultimate objects 
were to be attained. It was the teaching body, the 
faculty, the " College," properly so called. The 
" College " was the body of educators who were sent 
to a place. Por them the material conditions did but 

1 Vasco, vol. i, cap. vii, n. 33 seq. 

2 Orlandini ; Bollandists, n. 843. 

3 Bollandists, n. 839. 



JESUIT COLLEGES. 63 

supply a local habitation, subsistence, books, appa- 
ratus. The very first decree quoted by Pachtler, from 
the first general assembly, uses the term "College" 
in this sense : " No college is to be sent to any place," 
etc.i 

It is only by derivation from this meaning that the 
term is applied to the buildings and appointments. 
It is the body of men that makes the institution. It 
is this also which makes the institution perpetual ; 
and therefore must itself be so ; and must have the 
material conditions provided for continuing itself, by 
means of a constant stream of younger men under 
formation, who will perpetuate the same work. 

Now it would be an ideal conception of practical 
life to be looking for virtuous and erudite men, viri 
honi simul et eruditi, as Ignatius calls them, ever 
pouring into the Order, straight from the chairs of 
universities, from benefices, and XDOsts of leisured 
ease ; and, armed already with the full equipment of 
intellectual and moral endowments, presenting them- 
selves and their services thenceforth, under the title 
of absolute poverty, to cities, provinces, and countries, 
which never had anything to do with their formation. 
"These men," says Ignatius, "are found to be few in 
number, and of these few the majority would prefer to 
rest, after so many labors already undergone. We 
apprehend that it will be difficult for this Society to 
grow, on the mere strength of those who are already 
both good and accomplished, boni simul ac literati; and 
this for two reasons, the great labors which this maus 
ner of life imposes, and the great self-abnegation 
1 Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. ii, p. 72. 



64 LOYOLA. 

needed. Therefore, . . . another way has seemed 
good to adopt, that of admitting young men, who, by 
their good lives and their, talents afford us ground to 
hope that they will grow up into virtuous and learned 
men, in probos simul ac doctos vivos; of admitting also 
colleges, on those conditions which are expressed in 
the Apostolic briefs, whether these colleges be within 
universities, or independent: and, if within univer- 
sities, whether these institutions themselves are com- 
mitted to the care of the Society, or not. . . . Where- 
fore, we shall lirst speak of the colleges ; then of the 
universities," etc.^ 

There were never wanting men of the former kind, 
already accomplished and of tried virtue, who offered 
themselves for this service of a lifetime. A note- 
worthy testimony to their numbers may be found in a 
dispute with Philip II of Spain, who objected to any 
moneys leaving the Jesuit Provinces of his realm, for 
the service and maintenance of the great central col- 
lege in Eome ; and this, notwithstanding the fact that 
Spanish members were being maintained and formed 
there. The general assembly, gathered in Eome, 
1565, discussed the difficulty ; and one of the circum- 
stances mentioned was this : " The Provinces of Spain 
did not need the assistance of the Roman College as 
much as others; since many entered the Society, 
already mature in age and accomplished in learning, 
so that they could be employed at once in public posi- 
tions ; nor had they to be taught, but they were able 
to teach others. ... It was finally recommended 
that, to lessen the burden of expense on the Roman 
^ Constitutiones S, J., pars iv, declarationes in prooemiurn. 



JESUIT COLLEGES. 65 

College, and in order that fewer scholastics need be 
called to Eonie, each Province, as soon as convenient, 
should organize a general university; especially as 
there was already a sufficiency of students (members 
of the Order) and, besides, of Professors." ^ This was 
only twenty-six years after the foundation of the 
Society. 

But, even with all the advantages accruing from 
these large contingents of learned men already formed, 
the idea of Ignatius, to train young men within the 
Order, was more practical for the formation of facul- 
ties ; and it carried the general efficiency much further. 
Powerful and effective as the most pronounced person- 
alties may be, when each striking character goes for- 
ward into the open field of battle and leads the way, 
they are not more powerful than when also qualified 
to move in the steady and regular march of the 
trained forces. Father Montmorency, referring to 
the strength which comes of uniformity, sociability, 
and harmony, said. Homo unus, homo nullus, "A man 
alone is as good as no man at all." 

Ignatius then, having perpetuity and development 
in view, and therefore the steady and trained devel- 
opment of talented and virtuous young men, would 
not accept foundations, except on the basis of endow- 
ment, just described. He had not learned in vain the 
lessons of Barcelona, Alcala, Salamanca, and Paris. 
How wisely he acted is shown by the troubles, which 
later legislation reveals, upon this very point of in- 
adequately endowed colleges. The questions of ill- 
endowed colleges, small colleges, too many colleges 
1 Sacchini, pars iii, lib. i, nn. 36-42. 



66 LOYOLA. 

for the forces of a Province, are all excellently dis- 
cussed and settled in the general assembly, which, in 
1565, elected Francis Borgia to succeed Laynez. And 
''on the same day," says Sacchini, "the Fathers set 
the example of observing the decree which they had 
just made, with the same degree of severity with 
which they had made it; for, the letters of several 
Bishops and municipalities being read, in which foun- 
dations for five colleges were offered, they decided 
that no one of them should be admitted ; and, besides, 
they gave the new General full authority to dissolve 
certain colleges already existing." ^ In a similar vein, 
this was the theme of an elegant apology delivered 
before King Stephen by Father Campano, Provincial 
of Poland, who requested the King to desist from 
urging on the Society the multiplication of its insti- 
tutions.^ 

A tuition-fee paid by the scholar to the Professor, 
or to the institution, was nowhere contemplated. At 
Dijon, where Bossuet was afterwards a pupil, the 
magistrates when offering a college, in 1603, desired 
to supplement an inadequate endowment, by requiring 
a fee from the students. In the name of the Order, 
Father Coton, the King's confessor, remonstrated; and 
Henri IV himself wrote to the Parliament of Bour- 
gogne, desiring another arrangement to be made ; which 
was accordingly done.^ The foundation was always 
to be received as a gratuitous donation, for which the 

1 Sacchini, pars iii, Borgia; lib. i, nn. 36 seq. 

2 Sacchiui, pars v, Claudius Aquaviva, torn, prior ; lib. iv, n. 81. 

3 Recherches sur la Compagnie de Jesus en France au temps du 
Pere Coton, par le P. Prat, torn, ii, p. 296. 



JESUIT COLLEGES. 67 

Order owed permanent gratitude. In turn, thence- 
forward, it gave gratuitously, and allowed of no 
recompense. ^'Xo obligations or conditions are to be 
admitted that would impair the integrity of our prin- 
ciple, which is : To give gratuitously, what we have 
received gratis." ^ 

Thus then the faculty, a competent and a perma- 
nent one, is installed. It is not one conspicuous for 
leisured ease. Professors and Scholastics alike are 
working for a purpose. They are a '^ college," in the 
sense of the Society of Jesus. Yet, if there is not 
leisured ease, but a life of work and self-denial, the 
system has been found to result in all the conse- 
quences which may be looked for in literary "ease 
with dignity " ; and perhaps in more, since no one 
does more, than he who, in his own line, has as much 
as he can well do, and do well. System and method, 
the great means for making time manifold, become so 
absolutely necessary ; and the singleness of intention 
in a religious life intensifies results. Then, after the 
general formation has been bestowed, in the consecu- 
tive higher studies of seven or nine years within the 
Order, the plan of Ignatius leaves open to individual 
talents the whole field of specialties, in Science and 
Literature. Hence, to speak of our own day, Secchi 
or Perry devotes himself to astronomy, Garucci to 
archseology, Strassmeyer to Oriental inscriptions, the 
De Backers and Sommervogel to bibliography, others 
to philology, mathematics, and the natural sciences ; 
while five hundred and more writers follow the lines 
of their own inclinations, either for some directly use- 
ful purpose, or because their pursuit is in itself liberal. 
1 Constitutiones S. J., pars iv, cap. vii, n. 3. 



CHAPTEE V. 

COLLEGES FOUNDED AND ENDOWED. 

What was the response of the Christian world, 
when it had become alive to the nature of this new 
power in its midst, and to the proposal which the new 
power made ? What did the answer come to, in the 
way of providing temporalities, necessary and suffi- 
cient ? Strange enough ! Loyola's own short official 
lifetime of fifteen years does not appear to have been 
too short, for the purpose of awakening the world with 
his idea ; which, like a two-edged sword of his own 
make, not only aroused the keenest opposition at every 
thrust, and at his every onward step, but opened num- 
berless resources in the apostolic, the charitable, and 
educational reserves of human nature. 

This man, who had inserted in the authentic for- 
mula and charter of his Institute that watchword of 
his movements, " Defence and Advance " ; who had 
taken the whole world for the field of his operations, 
in defending and advancing ; this cavalier of a new 
military type, who had only to show himself upon the 
field to gather around him the flower of youth as well 
as mature age, from college and university, from doc- 
tor's chair and prince's throne, left behind him, as the 
work of fifteen years from the foundation of the Order, 
about one hundred colleges and houses, distributed 
68 



COLLEGES FOUNDED AND ENDOWED. 69 

into twelve Provinces. The territorial divisions were 
named, after tlieir chief centres, the Provinces of 
Portugal, Castile, Andalusia, Aragon, Italy, Naples, 
Sicily, Upper Germany, Lower Germany, France, 
Brazil, and the East Indies. Individuals under his 
orders had overrun Ireland, penetrated into Scotland, 
into Congo, Abyssinia, and Ethiopia. The East In- 
dies, first traversed by Francis Xavier either on foot, 
or in unseaworthy vessels, signified the whole stretch 
of countries from Goa and Ceylon on the West, to 
Malacca, Japan, and the coast of China on the East. 
Some of this activity might be credited to apostolic 
zeal alone, were it not that, wherever the leaders ad- 
vanced into the heart of a new country, it was always 
with the purpose, and generally with the result, that 
the country was to be occupied with educational in- 
stitutions. De Backer notes this in another connection, 
when, in the preface to his great work of bibliography, 
" The Library of Writers of the Company of Jesus," 
he says : " Wherever a Jesuit set his foot, wherever 
there was founded a house, a college, a mission, there 
too arose apostles of another class, who labored, who 
taught, who wrote." ^ 

What this means, with regard to its strategic value, 
there is no need of our being told. The Duke of 
Parma, writing, in 1580, from the seat of war in the 
Netherlands to Philip II of Spain, said : " Your Maj- 
esty desired that I should build a citadel in Maes- 
tricht ; I thought that a college of the Jesuits would 
be a fortress more likely to protect the inhabitants 

1 Bibliotheque des l^crivains de la Compagnie de Je'sus, Preface, 
1869. 



70 LOYOLA. 

against the enemies of the Altar and the Throne. I 
have built it." ^ 

Sixty years later, after the long generalship of . 
Aquaviva, who during 34 years governed the Order 
with the ability of another Ignatius, the number of 
colleges was 372. Well might his immediate succes- 
sor, Mutius Yitelleschi, writing to the whole Society 
about the Education of Youth, speak of the " beauti- 
ful and precious mass of gold, which we have in our 
hands to form and finish." ^ 

One hundred and fifty years after the death of 
Ignatius, the collegiate and university houses of edu- 
cation numbered 769. Two hundred years after the 
same date, when the Order was on the verge of univer- 
sal suppression, under the action of University men. 
Parliamentarians, Jansenists, Philosophers, and of that 
new movement which was preparing the Eevolution, 
the Jesuit educational institutions stood at the figure, 
728. The colleges covered almost the whole world, 
distributed into 39 Provinces, besides 172 Missions 
n the less organized regions of the globe.^ 

If we look at these 700 institutions of secondary 
and superior education, under the aspect of their 
constitution, that is to say, of their scope, their sys- 
tem, the supreme legislative and executive power 
which characterized them, we find that they were not 
so much a plurality of institutions, as a single one. 

1 Cretineau-Joly ; Histoire Religieuse, Politique et Litteraire de la 
Compagnie de Je'sus, torn, ii, ch. iv, p. 176 ; troisieme edit. 1851. 

2 De Institutione Juventutis ; Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, 
vol. ix, p. 61. 

^ Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. ii ; Pachtler, p. xx. 



COLLEGES FOUNDED AND ENDOWED. 71 

Take the 92 colleges of France alone.^ In one 
sense, these may be considered as less nnited than 
the 50 colleges of the Paris University, for the 
Paris University was in one quarter of a city, which 
offers a material unity ; these, on the contrary, were 
spread over the whole of France, presenting the char- 
acteristics of ^^ national" education; just as the 700 
were over the whole world, a cosmopolitan system. 
But, regarded in their formal and essential bond, 
they were vastly more of a unit, as an identical edu- 
cational power, than any faculty existing. Ko faculty, 
whether at Paris or Salamanca, Rome or Oxford, ever 
possessed that control over its 50, 20, or even 8 col- 
leges, which each Provincial Superior exercised over 
his 10, 20, or 30, and the General over more than 700, 
with 22,126 members in the Order. In the one Gpu- 
eral lay the power of an active headship ; froiu him 
the facultative power of conferring {Legrees ema- 
nated; and he had one system of studies and disci- 
pline in his charD-p t^ administer, with a latitude 
of discretion according to times, places, and circum- 
stances. 

As to the numbers of students, and the general 
estimate to be formed of them, I will record such 
data as fall under the eye, while passing rapidly 
over the literature of the subject. 

In Rome, the 20 colleges attending the classes 
of the Roman College numbered, in 1584, 2108 stu- 
dents. Father Argento, in his apology to the States 
at Klausenburg, in 1607, mentions that the schools in 

iThey are catalogued by Rochemonteix, College Henri IV, torn. 
ii, ch. i, p. 57, note. 



72 LOYOLA. 

Transylvania were frequented by the flower of the 
nobility ; and, in his '^ History of the Affairs in 
Poland," dedicated to Sigismund III, he attests that 
from 8000 to 10,000 youths, chiefly of the nobility 
and gentry, frequented the gymnasia of the Order in 
Poland. At Rouen, in France, there were regularly 
2000. At La Fleche there were 1700 during a cen- 
tury ; 300 being boarders, the other 1400 finding ac- 
commodation in the village, but always remaining 
under the supervision of the faculty. Throughout 
the seventeenth century, the numbers at the College 
of Louis-le-Grand, in Paris, varied between 2000, 
1827, and 3000 ; including, in the latter number, 550 
boarders. In 1627, only a few years after the resto- 
ration of the Society by Henri IV, the one Province 
of Paris had, in its 14 colleges, 13,195 students ; 
which would give an average of nearly 1000 to a col- 
lege. Cologne almost began with 800 students, — its 
roll in 1558. Diiingo^-* in 1607 had 760 ; in its con- 
victus, 110 of the boarders wcj? T^f^ligious, besides 
other Ecclesiastics ; the next year, out of 250 convic- 
tores or boarders, 118 were Religious of various Orders, 
the secular Priesthood being represented among the 
students generally. At Utrecht, during the first cen- 
tury of the Order's existence, there were 1000 scholars ; 
at Antwerp and Brussels each, 600 ; in most of the Bel- 
gian colleges, 300. As to Spain and Italy, which first 
saw the Society rise in their midst, and expand with 
immense vigor all over them, I consider it superfluous 
to dwell particularly upon them. 

In many of the capitals and important centres 
throughout Europe, there were separate colleges for 



COLLEGES FOUNDED AND ENDOWED. 73 

nobles. Elsewhere the nobility were mixed with the 
rest ; thus 400 nobles and more were attending the 
Jesuit schools in Paris. It was studiously aimed at 
by the Order to eliminate, in matters of education, all 
distinguishing marks or privileges. Thus Father Buys 
endeavors, in 1610, to reduce the practice at Dilingen 
to the custom of the other colleges in the upper Ger- 
man Province.-^ 

Most of the Papal Seminaries founded by Gregory 
XIII, at Vienna, Dilingen, Pulda, Prague, Gratz, 
Olmiitz, Wilna, as well as in Japan and other coun- 
tries, were j^ut under the direction of the Society ; as 
Pius IV did with his Eoman Seminary; and St. 
Charles Borromeo with that of Milan. 

Not knowing what the absolute average really was 
in these 700 institutions, we may still form some idea 
of w^hat the sum total of students must have been 
at its lowest figure. Por this purpose, we can take 
an average which seems about the lowest possible. 
I have not met with any distinct mention of a college 
having less than 300 scholars. There are indeed fre- 
quent complaints in the general assemblies, regarding 
what are denounced as " small " colleges. However, 
it seems clear from numerous indications, as, for 
instance, from the Encyclical letter of the General 
Paul Oliva,^ that these colleges were called small, 
not primarily on account of an insufficient number 
of students, but because of insufficient foundations, 
which did not support the Professors actually em- 
ployed. A document for the Eectors notes that 

1 Monumenta Germaniae Paedagogica, vol. ix; Pachtler, p. 192, n. 3. 

2 Monumenta Germanise Peedagogica, vol. ix, pp. 110-2. 



74 LOYOLA. 

^'thus far almost all the colleges, even such as have 
received endowments, suffer want regularly, and have 
frequently to borrow money." ^ 

Hence we may be allowed to take, as a tentative 
average, 300 students to a college. At once, we rise 
to a sum total of more than 200,000 students in these 
collegiate and university grades, all being formed at a 
given date under one system of studies and of govern- 
ment, intellectual and moral. 

If statistics, in that nicely tabulated form which 
delights modern bureaus, have failed us as we run 
over the whole world to decipher the indications, 
there is yet another view which we may catch of the 
same subject, and one that is equally valuable. It is 
the multitude of nations into which this educational 
growth ramified. At Goa, in Hindustan, the semi- 
nary, which was inferior to none in Europe, had for 
its students. Brahmins, Persians, Arabians, Ethiopians, 
Armenians, Chaldeans, Malabari, Cananorii, Guza- 
rates, Dacanii, and others from the countries beyond 
the Ganges. Japan had its colleges at Funai, Arima, 
Anzuchzana, and Nangasaki. China had a college at 
Macao ; and later on many more, reaching into the 
interior, where the Fathers became the highest man- 
darins in the service of the Emperor, and built his 
observatory. Towards the close of the eighteenth 
century a large number of colleges were flourishing 
in Central and South America. All of these disap- 
peared, when the Order was suppressed. The youth, 

lArch. Eheni Sup., quoted by Paclitler; Monumenta Germaniae 
Paedagogica, vol. ix, p. 110; see also the letter of the Geueral John 
Paul Oliva, ibid. p. 106. 



COLLEGES FOUNDED AND ENDOWED. 75 

who could afford to obtain the education needed, went 
over to Europe, whence they returned, a generation 
quite different from what had been known of before. 
They returned with the principles of the Revolution. 
And the whole history of Central and South America 
has changed, from that date onwards, into a series of 
revolutions, which are the standing marvel of political 
scientists to our day. 

To consult a graphic representation of how this edu- 
cational Order looked on the map of the world, one 
may glance into the ninth volume of the Monumenta 
Germanioe Pcedagogica. There Father Pachtler, as in 
his other volumes of the series, sketches only the Ger- 
man "Assistency " of the Society of Jesus. The five 
Assistencies of the Order served the purposes of gov- 
ernment, by grouping many Provinces together into 
larger divisions. In 1725, the German Assistency 
comprised nine out of thirty-two Provinces. The nine 
in question are those of Flandro-Belgium, French 
Belgium, the Lower Rhine, the Upper Rhine, Upper 
German}^, Bohemia, Austria, Poland, Lithuania. The 
map at the end of Father Pachtler's volume repre- 
sents all this countr}^, with the towns marked differ- 
ently, according as they contained either universities 
of the Order, or colleges, or convictus, that is, boarding- 
colleges, or seminaries, or residences. The chronologi- 
cal order of their rise is presented in a table at the 
beginning of the same volume, with a note to indicate 
more in particular the grade or amplitude of each, as 
being a Studimn Generale, otherwise called University 
or Academy, a College or a Gymnasium, as well as 
the annexes of each, in the shape of one or more cot?- 



76 LOYOLA. 

victus, one or more Episcopal or Papal Seminaries, 
a college of nobles, a conv ictus for poor scholars. By 
means of this map, a graphic presentation is afforded 
of one Assistency, from which, by a proper extension, 
the whole world may be portrayed to the imagination. 
In 1750, within the limits of this map, there were 217 
colleges, 55 seminaries, 73 residences, 24 novitiates, 
160 missions, 6 professed houses.^ 

The universities here spoken of, otherwise called 
Studia Generalla, or Academies, are quite typical, a 
special Jesuit development of the mediaeval style. 
An exact and official form, drawn up for the Univer- 
sity of Gratz, may be found in the same Monumental 
As Father Pachtler remarks, it shows at a glance the 
inner working of a Jesuit university, and the general 
system prevailing over the whole Society. He en- 
titles the document : " Ordnung einer ausschlieschlich 
von Jesuiten geleiteten Universitdt/' or " Einer selbstdn- 
dige Universitdt, 1658." The Latin title is: "Forma et 
Ratio Gubernandi Academias et Studia Oeneralia S. J. " 
It was the compilation of Father John Argento. 

Upon this basis of the amount of work done, as 
well as its intrinsic character, shown by the results, 
I was going to draw some inferences with regard to 
the amount of the temporal endowments, which must 
have been required to support such a vast organiza- 
tion, and must have been vested in the Order by the 
Christian world. One might compare the work done 
with what Oxford accomplishes ; and, seeing that the 
latter university supplies the facilities for higher edu- 

1 Monumenta GermanifB Psedagogica, vol, ii ; Pachtler, p. xx. 

2 Vol. ix, pp. 322-389. 



COLLEGES FOUNDED AND ENDOWED. 77 

cation, and that far from gratuitously, to only a couple 
of thousands among the nobility and gentry, then, 
since it spends upon this an annual revenue of $2,500,- 
000, how much would be required to conduct the edu- 
cation of a quarter of a million of students ? Our 
arithmetic would feel oppressed by the calculation. 

But the calculation is not necessary. It is quite 
evident that religious poverty gave the key to the 
situation, — poverty, self-abnegation, the resignation 
of all temporal considerations in life, by men who had 
no families to provide for, no station to acquire ; who 
had themselves given up every station, from that of 
the clerical benefice, or the liberal and martial careers, 
to ducal coronets, princedoms, and even ro3^alty ; men 
therefore, who were bestowing with themselves, and in 
themselves, the essential endowment of education upon 
the world, and who needed only to have that supple- 
mented with the few temporal necessities still remain- 
ing. And the conclusion to be draAvn seems to be this. 
The Christian world, whether ruler or people, republic 
or municipality, was making a safe and lucrative in- 
vestment, whether at home or abroad, in the midst of 
civilization or of barbarism, when it consigned the ab- 
solute use of sufficient temporalities to a world-wide 
faculty, inspired by the sentiment of religious devo- 
tion. 

Eor what is the object of any religious society whatso- 
ever ? It is to complete in each of its members the 
duties of the man, the citizen and the Christian, with 
other duties called "religious," which, correlative 
with the former, are nevertheless distinct from them. 
They are duties which presuppose the moral virtues, 



78 LOYOLA. 

the civil and Christian virtues, and tend to complete 
them with the highest qualities to which perfect Chris- 
tianity aspires, those of self-devotion and religious 
self-consecration. 

Hence the experiences, making a drama and a 
tragedy, when the Society abruptly disappeared. 
Supposing even that enough of competent men, with 
all personal requirements, could have been found to 
fill the void, what of their salaries and support ? 
Take an instance. The revenues, which at Bourges 
had been enough for the support of thirty Jesuits, 
were found, after the Suppression of the Order, not to 
afford an adequate compensation for ten secular Pro- 
fessors.^ Frederic II of Prussia, sending an agent to 
negotiate with Pius VI about retaining the Order in 
his States, expresses himself thus in a letter to Vol- 
taire : " The surest means (to perpetuate a series of 
Professors) is to preserve a seminary of men destined 
to teach. In studying the sciences, they fit them- 
selves for the office of instructing. It would be no 
easy task to fill instantaneously a vacancy left by a 
skilful professor. If the education of ordinary citi- 
zens be necessary, the training up of instructors must 
be no less so." And then, coming to the point before 
us, the King continues : " Besides, there are reasons 
of economy for preferring such a body of men to mere 
secular individuals. The professor taken from the 
latter class will cost more, because he has a greater 
number of wants. It is needless to remark that the 

1 Maynard; The Studies and Teaching of the Society of Jesus, at 
the Time of its Suppression, 1750-1773; Baltimore edit. 1885, eh. 2; 
The Jesuits in Germany, pp. 112-3. 



COLLEGES FOUNDED AND ENDOWED. 79 

property of the Jesuits would not be sufficient to re- 
munerate their successors ; and that revenues, which 
pass over to the administration of the government, 
always suffer diminution." ^ Speaking of Ganganelli, 
Pope Clement XIII, who was under pressure from 
various quarters to make him suppress the Order, 
Frederic writes to Voltaire in 1770 : " For my own 
part, I have no reason to complain of him ; he leaves 
me my dear Jesuits, whom they are persecuting every- 
where. I will save the precious seed, to give some of 
it, one day, to those who should wish to cultivate a 
plant so rare." ^ 

The testimony of documents is uniform upon the 
poverty of these men, whom Protestant historians like 
Grotius, Eobertson, and others marvel at, for the au- 
thority they possessed in the world, for the purity of 
their lives, their success in teaching, and their art of 
commanding with wisdom as they themselves obeyed 
with fidelity. Their life was one of straitened circum- 
stances and self-abnegation. We may see it illus- 
trated in Dilingen.^ Or again, at the great royal college, 
founded by Henri IV at La Fleche, where three hun- 
dred boarders w^ere supposed to be paying their own 
expenses, as pensionnaires, we find Louis XIII issu- 
ing a royal decree that his magistrates are to prose- 
cute " les retardataires et les recalcitrants par toutes 
les voyes raisonnables," persons who did not pay the 
expenses of their own children, but left that interest- 

1 1777, 18 novembre ; CEuvres de Voltaire, vol. xcv, p. 207 ; edit. 
1832. 

2 Lettre a Voltaire, 7 juillet, 1770; CEuvres de Voltaire, torn, xii, 
p. 495 ; edit. 1817. 

3 Monumenta Germanise Psedagogica, vol. ii, pp. 358-9. 



80 LOYOLA. 

ing occupation to the college. With, all that, says 
Eochemonteix, nothing came of it, neither of the royal 
injunctions, nor of judicial suits ; things went on the 
same way, " the parents paying badly, and the treas- 
urers lamenting." ^ 

I will close this chapter with one case, because it 
serves to emphasize a particular sequel of the Suppres- 
sion; that is, the revival of a tuition-fee. A recent 
author, writing in 1890, tells the history of the Col- 
lege of Saint- Yves at Vannes, in Brittany. He sums 
up its revenues at 6000 livres. Placed in the hands 
of the Order, this college, in 1636, that is, seven years 
after the Society had assumed charge, directed 400 
students ; later on, 900 ; and then 1200. In 1762, the 
faculty consisted of thirteen members, besides the 
four Fathers engaged in the adjoining house of re- 
treats. All rendered various services, as is usual in a 
college of Jesuit instructors. To these we must add 
the requisite complement of the faculty, at least half 
as many more lay assistants, belonging to the Order, 
and to the same local community. Here then are 
twenty-two at the least, subsisting on 6000 livres a 
year; and meanwhile providing their house, their 
library, their physical cabinet, which was fully fitted 
up with all necessary instruments, and their observa- 
tory.^ u r^^Q moment after the Suppression," he goes 
on to say, " it was quite another affair ! Ten secular 
professors cost 11,000 livres for their salaries alone ! " 

1 Le College Henri IV, torn, ii, ch. 1, p. 20. 

2 Fernand Butel, Docteur en Droit, etc. ; L'l^ducation des Jesuites 
autrefois et aujonrd'hui, Un College Breton, ch. 1, p. 51; p. 19; 
p. 28; Paris, Firmin-Didot, 1890. 



COLLEGES FOUNDED AND ENDOWED. 81 

The author gives the list of their salaries. "To rees- 
tablish equilibrium, one of the first acts of the parlia- 
ment was to exact from each scholar a tuition-fee of 
twelve livres; and yet they complained, they could 
not make ends meet." 

Observe, a tuition-fee ! On the day after the Sup- 
pression, they begin to undo the very work, which, 
two hundred and thirty years before, the Order had 
begun to do at its birth, spreading education gratu- 
itously, without drawing on pupils, or drawing on the 
public treasury. 

Well might the General Vincent Caraffa say, in 
the time of the Thirty Years' War, '^We abound 
rather in men than in revenues.'' And he says so, in 
the same breath and in the same sentence, in which 
he is asking Priests to offer themselves for life to the 
work of teaching the lower branches, a work which 
he calls laborious, in times which he specifies as 
disastrous, and in circumstances which he describes 
as having no provision made for the means of living.^ 

This brief sketch will go to show how the Christian 
world did, indeed, meet the proposal of the Order, 
and found seven hundred colleges. But it also shows 
how the Order endowed the world, and had even to 
make good, with its personal heroism, the defects in 
many of the foundations. 

1 Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. ix, p. 65. 



CHAPTER VI. 
THE INTELLECTUAL SCOPE AND METHOD PROPOSED. 

As the second part of this book is intended to be a 
pedagogic analysis of the mental culture imparted, I 
need not sketch here, save in a general way, the in- 
tellectual scope proposed by Ignatius of Loyola, and 
the method which he originated. Both scope and 
method vary somewhat, according as the students 
contemplated are respectively external to the Order, 
or members of it. The latter are to be qualified for 
becoming future Professors, even though, in point of 
fact, only a certain proportion of them become so. 

Studious youth in general, including Ecclesiastics 
and Eeligious of the various Orders, are considered 
by Ignatius as distributed amid two kinds of educa- 
tional institutions. One of these he calls the Public 
School ; the other, a University. The first is that 
which extends, in its courses, from the rudiments of 
literature up to the lower level of university educa- 
tion. He says : " Where it can conveniently be 
done, let Public Schools be opened, at least in the 
departments of Humane Letters." ^ In a note, he 
explains that Moral Theology may be treated in a 
gymnasium of this kind. Father Aquaviva, in 1588, 
puts this kind of school down as the lowest of three 

1 Coustitutiones, pars iv, c. 7, n. 1. 
82 



INTELLECTUAL SCOPE AND METHOD. 83 

ranks of colleges ; and sums up the courses as being 
those of Grammar, Humanities, Ehetoric, Languages, 
and Moral Theology.^ He also explains why the 
lowest Jesuit curriculum must fill these require- 
ments, " in order that the Society be not defrauded of 
the end it has in view, which is, to carry the students 
on at least as far as mediocrity in learning, so that 
they may go forth into their respective vocations, 
Ecclesiastics to their ministry, lay students to their 
own work in life, qualified in some degree with a 
sufficiency of literary culture."^ This curriculum 
served also the purpose of those, who, while members 
of the Order, were for some reason dispensed from 
the full course of studies.^ If any grades are want- 
ing in a college, it must be the lower ones which are 
omitted, the higher being retained.'* Ignatius goes 
on to limit the courses in a gymnasium of this kind : 
" Let not higher sciences be treated here ; but, to 
pursue them, the students who have made due 
progress in literature are to be sent from these col- 
leges to the universities.^ 

Passing on to universities of the Order, he defines 
for their scope, first, in behalf of those who are to be 
Ecclesiastics, Scholastic Theology, Holy Scripture, and 
Positive Theolog}" ; secondly, for all students. Humane 
Letters, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and other such 
languages as Chaldaic, Arabic, and Indian, subject to 

1 Formulae acceptandorum Collegiorum, etc., summarium ; Mon- 
umenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. ii ; Pachtler, p. 338. 2 ibid. 

3 Monuraenta Germauiae Paedagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, p. 76, 5. 
Their curriculum was enlarged in 1829; ibid., p. 110, 6. 

4 Ratio Studiorum 1599 ; Reg. Prov. 21, § 4. Pachtler, Monumenta 
Germanise Paedagogica, vol. ii, p. 258. ^ Constitutiones, ibid. 



84 LOYOLA. 

the demands of necessity or utility ; moreover, Logic, 
Physics, Metaphysics, Moral Philosophy, and Mathe- 
matics. All these departments are to be provided 
for by Professors of the Order. If the departments 
of Civil Law and Medicine are added, they will be 
conducted by Professors not of the Society.-^ 

As to the Scholastic members of the Society, their 
mental culture in the Order begins, of course, where 
their collegiate curriculum had closed, that is, at the 
end of their classical course. Their studies hence- 
forth are defined by two objects ; one, that of pro- 
fessing, as formed Jesuits in the future, what they 
are studying now ; the other, that of being differen- 
tiated, according to talent and circumstance, into 
preachers, writers, directors of consciences, or mana- 
gers of affairs. 

In view of this two-fold object, all the examina- 
tions, arranged for members of the Order in the 
advanced courses, are regulated by one standard, that 
the Jesuit Scholastics must be found competent, at 
each stage, to teach the course in which they are 
being tested. Accordingly, they review their previous 
literary acquirements, in all the lines which the Soci- 
ety regularly professes ; then, during three years, 
they apply exclusively to Philosophy and Natural 
Sciences ; and, four years more, to Divinity and allied 
Sciences.^ 

This protracted course, therefore, as given more in 
detail by the subsequent Ratio, consists of Poetry, 
Ehetoric, and Literature; Mathematics, Physics, and 

1 Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 12, 

2 Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 5, n. 1. 



INTELLECTUAL SCOPE AND METHOD. 85 

Chemistry; Logic, Ontology, Cosmology, Psychology, 
and Natural Theology; Ethics, Natural, Social and 
Public Eight, Moral Theology, Canon Law, Eccle- 
siastical History, Scholastic Theology, Hebrew, Sacred 
Scripture. The courses are to be pursued either in 
the same classes which external students attend, or, 
in their own university classes, when a general house 
of studies is formed as a " Scholasticate." In both 
cases, they have Seminary exercises of their own, 
beyond what is required in the most condensed uni- 
versity courses, 

Those whom health and excellence have approved 
at every step are ordinarily to be withdrawn from 
studies, " when the course of Arts has been finished, 
and when four years have been spent on Theology."^ 
Specialties are to be cultivated.^ Subsequent legis- 
lation places these specialties in the interval between 
the Arts and Theology ; and, again, after the latter. 

This, in brief, is the practical idea of the Profes- 
sorial Seminaries, philological, philosophical, scientific, 
and theological, through which the stream of future 
Professors is continually passing. Each one is sub- 
ject, at every stage, to examination tests which in- 
clude the most distinct reference to professorial capac- 
ity. The technical standard in the examinations is 
that of " surpassing mediocrity," which term is ac- 
curately defined, as we shall see later, when analyzing 
the Batio.^ 

While the depleted ranks of the professorial body 
are thus regularly supplied, it is clear that more ser- 

1 Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 9, n. 3. 2 ibid., c. 5, n. 1, C. 

3 Ch. xi. below. 



86 LOYOLA. 

vices remain available in the Order at large, than the 
single purpose of education would at any time re- 
quire. But this only serves the wider scope which 
the Society has in view, much wider than education 
taken alone. And Ignatius makes mention of this 
expressly when he says, that the Scholastic students 
" may never come to profess the learning which they 
have acquired " ; still " they are to consider that labor 
of studies as a work of great merit in the sight of 
God." 1 

So much for the widest and highest intellectual ob- 
jects aimed at in these studies. Looking down now 
to its lowest limit, we perceive that education, as 
imparted by the Society to the external world, is to 
begin not below "the rudiments of grammar, in 
which boys must already be versed ; they must know 
how to read and write ; nor is any allowance to be 
made in favor of any one, whatever be his condition 
of life ; but those who press these petitions upon us 
are to be answered, that we are not permitted " to 
teach the elements. This is the ordinance of Aqua- 
viva, in 1592, and he simply refers to the Constitu- 
tion.^ He also notes, in the same document, that the 
new Ratio Studiorum elevates every grade, as it stood 
at that date, one year higher than it had been before. 
The document is from the German archives. Pachtler 
observes that most of the Latin schools, particularly 
in Protestant Germany, took children up from the 
alphabet.^ The effect of the Jesuit system was that 

1 Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 6, n. 2. 

2 Monumenta GermanisB Psedagogica, vol. ii, p. 311. 

3 Ibid., p. 310, note. 



INTELLECTUAL SCOPE AND METHOD. 87 

of a constant upward trend to what was higher, more 
systematic, and complete. 

This brings us to the question of method. Here a 
number of elements occur, some of them essential, 
many of them subordinate. These latter, at least, were 
the products of ingenuity and industry on the part of 
the teaching body, and were productive of industry 
and life on the part of scholars. To illustrate the 
whole matter, I will refer to authors who were ad- 
dressing the world, soon after the Society had taken 
its stand as an educational power, and when its insti- 
tutions were conspicuous to the eyes of all. 

First comes classification, which was an essential 
feature of the Jesuit system, ^ibadeneira, the inti- 
mate friend of Ignatius, when writing the life of 
Loyola, in the year 1584, and describing the work of 
the Order, now forty -fours years old, observes : " Else- 
where one Professor has many grades of scholars before 
him ; he addresses himself at one and the same time 
to scholars who are at the bottom, midway, and at the 
top ; and he can scarcely meet the demands of each. 
But, in the Society, we distinguish one rank of 
scholars from another, dividing them into their own 
classes and orders ; and separate Professors are placed 
over each." ^ 

The division of classes, a thing so natural to us, 
was in those times a novelty. There were practically 
only two degrees of teaching; one superior, embrac- 
ing Theology, Law, and Medicine ; the other prepara- 
tory. The preparatory instruction had already been 
tending towards the later system of grading; the 
1 Ribadeneira, Bollaudists, July, torn, vii, nu. 335 seq. 



88 LOYOLA. 

term " class " was an expression of the Eenaissance. 
Father Rochemonteix, speaking of the Paris Univer- 
sity, notes that the first authentic act, in which the 
term is used, dates from 1539.^ From 1535, the divis- 
ion of studies, by means of classes, was already being 
accomplished. Still there was no definite number of 
grades. The study of literary models was defective. 
Grammar was beclouded with the subtleties of dialec- 
tics, to the great prejudice of written composition, as 
well as of the reading and imitation of models.^ 

Now it will be observed that Ignatius was studying 
in the University of Paris from 1528 to 1535 ; and his 
companions remained till 1536. By the time he pub- 
lished the Constitution as a rule of guidance, he had 
become surrounded by men, who Avere not merely 
graduates of universities, but had been Doctors, Pro- 
fessors, and Eectors in Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, 
Belgium, Germany. One consequence was that Igna- 
tius, from the very beginning, formulated a complete 
system of graded classes. He relegated dialectics to 
its proper field. Philosophy and Theology. And, bring- 
ing into prominence the reading of authors, and the 
practice of style in imitation of the best models, he 
defined a method. This, after being elaborated during 
forty years, was then found to be not only new, but 
complete, and good for centuries to come. It arranged 
courses in a series, having reference to one another ; 
it coordinated definite stages of the courses with defi- 
nite matter to be seen; and, in the lower branches 

1 Le College Henri IV., torn, iii, pp. 5-7. 

2 Compare the ordinance of Father Oliver Manare, 1583, n. 114; 
Monumenta Germanife Piiedagogica, vol. ii, p. 269. 



INTELLECTUAL SCOPE AND METHOD. 89 

it distributed the students, with their respective por- 
tions of tiie matter, into five grades, classifying pre- 
cepts, authors, and exercises, as proportioned to each 
successive grade. Nothing more familiar to ourselves 
now ; nothing newer to the world then ! This was the 
Ratio Studiorum. 

The grades of the gymnasium may include several 
divisions, according to the number of students ; but 
the grading itself remains fixed, and leaves no ele- 
ment, either of actual culture, or of future develop- 
ments, unprovided for, or without a location. Nor do 
these grades mean five years. They mean a work to 
be done in each grade, before the next is taken up. 
On this, the mind of Ignatius was most explicit. As an 
almost universal rule, they never mean less than five 
years. And, for one of them, the grade of Ehetoric, 
in which all literary perfection is to be acquired, the 
system contemplates two and even three years. In 
this point, too, we may note a characteristic view of 
Ignatius. It is that the longer term, whenever pro- 
vided, whenever prescribed, urged, and insisted upon, 
is always for the talented student, the one who is to 
become eminent. To use his own words, when laying 
down the rules in this matter for the Eector of a 
University, his full idea will be carried out, when 
"those who are of the proper age, and have the 
aptitude of genius, endeavor to succeed in every 
branch and to be conspicuous therein." ^ 

To enumerate now some of the subordinate elements 
in the Jesuit method, I will quote from the same 
author, Eibadeneira. He says, speaking of young 
1 Cons tit utienes, pars iv, c. 13, n. 4. 



90 LOYOLA. 

scholars : ^' Many means are devised, and exercises em- 
ployed, to stimulate the minds of the young — assidu- 
ous disputation, various trials of genius, prizes offered 
for excellence in talent and industry. These preroga- 
tives and testimonies of virtue vehemently arouse the 
minds of students, awake them even when sleeping, 
and, when they are aroused and are running on with a 
good will, impel them and spur them on faster. For, 
as penalty and disgrace bridle the will and check it 
from pursuing evil, so honor and praise quicken the 
sense wonderfully, to attain the dignity and glory of 
virtue.'' He quotes Cicero and Quintilian to the 
same effect.-^ 

This was not to develop a false self-love in young 
hearts ; which would have been little to the purpose 
with religious teachers. ^'Let them root out from 
themselves, in every possible way, self-love and the 
craving for vain glory," says the oldest code of school 
rules in the Society, probably from the pen of 
Father Peter Canisius himself.- What is appealed to, 
is the spirit of emulation, and that by a world of 
industries ; which, disguising the aridity of the work 
to be gone through, spurs young students on to 
excellence in whatever they undertake, and rewards 
the development of natural energies with the natural 
luxury of confessedly doing well. In the dry course 
of virtue and learning, satisfaction of this kind is not 
excited in the young, without a sign, a token, a badge, 
a prize. Then they feel happy in having done well, 
however little they enjoyed the labor before. Honor- 

1 Bollandists, ibid., 376-7. 

2 Monuinenta Germanise Psedagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, p. 169. 



INTELLECTUAL SCOPE AND METHOD. 91 

able distinctions well managed, sometimes a share in 
the unimportant direction of the class, brillianc}^ of 
success in single combat on the field of knowledge, of 
memory, or of intellectual self-reliance, the ordered 
discrimination of habitual merit, all these means and 
many others keep the little army in a condition of 
mental activity, and sometimes of suspense; '^and if 
not all are victorious, all at least have traversed the 
strengthening probation of struggle." ^ 

In all the courses of Belles-lettres, Ehetoric, Phi- 
losophy, and Theology, the institutions called " Acade- 
mies" gather into select bodies the most talented and 
exemplary of the students. The young literatears, or 
philosophers, having their own officials, special reun- 
ions, and archives, hold their public sessions in pres- 
ence of the other students, the Masters, and illustrious 
personages invited for the occasion. In their poems, 
speeches, dialogues, they discuss, declaim, and rise to 
great thoughts, and to the conception of great deeds. 

Civil discords are not the subject of their debates, 
but the glories of their native country, its success in 
arms, all that is congenial to the young mind and fos- 
ters the sentiment of love of country. Among the 
students of Rhetoric, forensic debates and judicial 
trials are organized ; " and when the advocates of both 
sides have pleaded their cause in one or two sessions 
of the court, then," says a document I am quoting 
from, dated 1580, ^'the judge, who has been elected 
for the purpose, will pronounce his judgment in an 

1 L'Education des Jesuites autrefois, etc., par Dr. F. Butel, ch. 1 
pp. 22-8. This author sketches agreeably the means touched upon 
in the text, and his references are useful. 



92 LOYOLA. 

oration of his own ; this will be the brilliant perform- 
ance ; and, to hear it, friends will be invited, and the 
Doctors of the University and all the students will be 
in attendance." ^ In the programme for the distribution 
of rewards, there is described an interesting element, 
puer lepidus, "sl bright young lad," and what he is to 
do and how he is to bring out the name of the victor, 
"whereupon the music will strike up a sweet sym- 
phony."^ At another time, a set of published theses 
are defended against all comers by some philosopher 
or theologian. And, while games and manly exercises 
outside develop physical strength, gentility of demea- 
nor and elegance of deportment have the stage at their 
service inside, for the exhibition of refined manners. 

In all this, princes and nobles, future men of letters 
and of action, are mingling in daily life, in contest and 
emulation, with sons of the simplest burghers. Des- 
cartes^ notes these points sagaciously, when he recom- 
mends to a friend the College of La Fleche : " Young 
people are there," he says, " from all parts of France ; 
there is a mingling of characters ; their mutual inter- 
course effects almost the same good results as if they 
were actually travelling; and, in fine, the equality 
which the Jesuits establish among all, by treating just 
in the same Avay those who are most illustrious and 
those who are not so, is an extremely good invention." ^ 

1 Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, p. 261. Ad- 
dita quffidam Exercitiis Litterariis Humanistarum, 1580 ; prior to 
tlie completed Ratio Studiorum. 2 ibid., p. 262. 

3 Lettre xc. 

4 Compare Chateaubriand's Genius of Christianity, part iv, book 
vi, Recapitulation; translation by Dr. Chas. L White; Baltimore, 
1884, p. 037 seq. 



INTELLECTUAL SCOPE AND METHOD. 93 

As the new sciences came into vogue, they received 
at once the freedom of this city of intellect ; and here 
they received it first. It has been said, indeed, that 
the Society of Jesus, "obstinately bound to its for- 
malism, refused to admit anything modern, real, and 
actual, and that the national languages and literatures, 
as well as the new developing sciences, fared ill at its 
hands.'' This statement, as far as it concerns France, 
is examined by Father Charles Daniel, who to other 
valuable works of his own has added the neat little 
essay called, Les Jesuites InstUuteurs de la Jeunesse 
Frangaise, au XVII^ et au XVIII^ si^de} As to Ger- 
many, we shall see indications enough on all these 
subjects in the Monumenta Germanice Pcedagogica. 
For all countries there is a sufficiency of information, 
in the mere text of the Eatio Studiorum, in Jouvancy's 
classic commentary thereupon, De Batione Discendi et 
Docendi, and other authentic documents, besides the 
actual practice visible in the colleges. But the whole 
question about the vernacular tongues, as if they were 
kept out of the colleges by Latin and Greek, is so far 
an anachronism for the dates and epochs, regarding 
which some moderns have agitated the question, that 
I shall tell a little anecdote, which will not be so much 
of a digression, but that it will place us back just 
where we are at present. 

In 1605, Lord Bacon published his two books on 
the Advancement of Learning. The work is consid- 
ered the first part of his "Novum Organum." He un- 
dertakes to "make a small Globe," as he says, "of 
the Intellectual World, as truly and faithfully as he 
1 Paris, Victor Palme, 1880. 



94 LOYOLA. 

can discover.^ His subject is identical, as far as it 
goes, with the much more extensive and exhaustive 
work of Father Anthony Possevino, a famous Jesuit, 
who had published, twelve years before, the results 
of twenty years' travel and observation, while ful- 
filling, in many countries, the important duties of 
Apostolic Legate, Preacher, Professor. I have two 
editions of his great tomes before me. The first is 
that of Kome, 1593 ; the other that of Venice, 1603 ; 
this latter is called " the most recent edition." ^ The 
only indication which I discern of Bacon's not having 
profited by Possevino is this, that he says : '^ No man 
hath propounded to himself the general state of learn- 
ing to be described and represented from age to age." ^ 
Now, as this is saying too much, for it just indicates 
what Possevino's labors had been showing to the 
world during twelve years, I must conclude that there 
is no assurance whatever, but that Bacon profited by 
Possevino : he seems merely to have gone over the 
same ground in English, and done justice to the subject, 
in his own peculiar way. Accordingly, he did it what 
justice he could, in English. Three years later he 
writes to Dr. Playfer, Margaret Professor of Divinity 
in the University of Cambridge, requesting that the 
Doctor would be pleased to translate the work into 

1 Works ; Philadelphia edit. 1859, vol. i, p. 244. 

2 Bibliotheca Selecta in qua agitur de Ratione Studiorum, in 
Historia, in Disciplinis, in Salute Omnium procuranda. De Backer 
in his Bibliotheque des Ecrivains de la Campagnie de Jesus gives 
the list of republications, either in whole or in part. Sommer- 
vogel's new work, royal quarto, Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de 
Jesus, 1890, has reached thus far only to the letter B ; hence Posse- 
vino is not yet entered. 3 ibid., p. 187. 



INTELLECTUAL SCOPE AND METHOD. 9o 

Latin; and his lordship promises eternal gratitude. 
What reasons does the noble author urge for this re- 
quest ? Two reasons, of which the first is very note- 
worthy for our purpose : — " the privateness of the 
language, wherein it is written, excluding so many 
readers ! " And the second is almost as worthy of 
note : — " the obscurity of the argument, in many 
parts of it, excluding many others ! " ^ Here we have 
our domestic classic author, in the year 1608, endeav- 
oring to get out of his narrow cell, the " privateness 
of the English language," into the broad world of the 
literary public, where the Jesuit with his tomes was 
enjoying to the full his literary franchise. This does 
not look as if the colleges, at that time, kept the lan- 
guages down, but rather that they had in their gift the 
full freedom of the literary world, and sent students 
forth to walk abroad at their ease there, where Bacon 
humbly sued for admission ! 

■ I was going to quote from Posse vino, describing in 
a graphic way the daily intellectual life of the great 
Roman College, with its two thousand and more stu- 
dents, besides the great body of Professors. But my 
limits forbid me to do more than refer to it.^ 

There are two views which may be taken of a coin 
and its stamp. One is taken direct, looking at it in 
itself: the other is indirect, observing the impression 
it leaves in the mould. It leaves a defined vacancy 
there. What kind of vacancy was left in the intellec- 
tual culture of Europe, when this intellectual system 

1 Ibid., p. 136. 

2 Ch. 10, of book 1, Ratio Collegiorum et Scholarum, etc., end of 
chapter ; Roman edit. 



96 LOYOLA. 

was suddenly swept away ? Before the Suppression 
of the Society, some of the institutions, which had 
thriven at all, had been inspired by a healthful rivalry. 
They found, when the Society was gone, that part of 
their life decayed. And, while they themselves be- 
gan to languish, the place of the Jesuits they could 
not fill. Of some others, who lived a life barely dis- 
cernible, we are given to understand, that their vital- 
ity consisted in the effort to keep the Jesuits out. I 
will take an instance from Bayonne. 

A work has just been published on the municipal 
college of Bayonne, by the Censor of Studies, in the 
Lyceum of Agen.^ In seventy pages, which concern 
transactions with the Jesuits,^ the author, in no friendly 
tone, narrates the entire history from the documents 
of the Jansenist party. I will imitate this example 
of his so far as to narrate the following entirely in 
his own words. 

Beginning his last chapter, entitled "Eeform and 
Conclusion," he says in a tone somewhat subdued, but 
not more so than his subject:^ '^This then was the 
College of Bayonne, which, for a few years more, pro- 
longed an existence ever more and more precarious ; 
and it was finally closed in 1792, in spite of several 
generous efforts at restoring it. 

^^But already," he continues, "for thirty years, a 
great literary event had been accomplished in secondary 
education. A decree of the Parliament of Paris, dated 

iHistoire d'un College Municipal aux XVI«, XVII «, et XVIII « 
siecles ... a Bayonne avant 1789. These presentee a la Faculte 
des Lettres de Toulouse, par J. M. Drevon, censeur des Iiltudes au 
Lycee d'Ageu, 1890. About 500 pages. 2 Pp, 160-234. 3 p. 429. 



INTELLECTUAL SCOPE AND METHOD. 97 

the 16th of August, 1762, had pronounced the expul- 
sion of the ^ ci-devant soi-disants Jesuites ' ; which 
decree was this time definitively executed. ISTow the 
Jesuits, in their five Provinces of France, possessed 
then nearly a hundred colleges. Judge of the immense 
void Vvdiich was suddenly created in the secondary' 
instruction of the Province, ill j)repared for so abrupt 
a departure ! There was a general confusion, and a 
concert, as it were, of complaints and recriminations. 
Where get the new masters ? . . . The disciplinary 
and financial administration of the colleges, left 
vacant by the Jesuits, was confided to the bureaus, 
that is to say, assemblies composed of the Archbishop 
or Bishop, the Lieutenant General, the King's Proctor, 
and the senior Alderman. . . . Every one soon felt 
the inconveniences of this system. The municipal 
officers of the cities, the bureaus themselves hastened 
to petition the King, that their colleges might be con- 
fided to religious communities. Thus it was that the 
greater part of the old Jesuit colleges fell into the 
hands of the Benedictines and Bernardines, of the 
Carmelites and Minims, of Jacobins and Cordeliers, 
of Capuchins and Recollects, of Doctrinaires and Bar- 
nabites, and above all, of the Oratorians. But all 
these Religious, except the Oratorians, fell far short 
of the Jesuits. The greater part had not even any 
idea of teaching, etc." Then the author devotes a 
heavy page to the novel systems which were intro- 
duced. He closes the paragraph sadly : " All this 
agitation," he says, '^ was unfortunately sterile ; and, 
as I have just said, secondary instruction, on the eve 
of the French Revolution, had not taken a step for- 
ward during fifty years." 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE MORAL SCOPE PROPOSED. 

Sweet is the holiness of youth, says Chaucer. Nor 
less grateful to the eye are those gentle manners of 
youth, which another bard portrays as impersonated 
in his " celestial lights," who say : — 

We all 
Are ready at thy pleasure, well disposed 
To do thee gentle service, i 

Christian morals and Christian manners make the per- 
fect gentleman. 

Plato had put it down that "he who hath a good 
soul is good" ; and he insisted that no youth, Avho has 
had a personal acquaintance with evil, can have a 
good soul. He did not mean that a youth must be ig- 
norant of what temptation is. There is no hot-house 
raising in this world which will keep off that blast. 
Every child, while keeping on the royal road of in- 
nocence, has enough in himself, and in the choicest 
of surroundings, to know the realities of life and its 
warfare. But Plato refers to a personal experience of 
the by-ways, which are not virtue, and which it is not 
necessary to travel by, in order to know enough about 
them. The educational means, the industry, the vigi- 

1 Dante, Parad. viii. 
98 



THE MORAL SCOPE PKOPOSED. 99 

lance, which have for a result the preservation of youth 
in the freshness of innocence, signify a medium of res- 
piration which is kept pure, and a moral nutriment 
Avhich is good and is kept constantly supplied, until 
tender virtue has risen steadily into a well-knit recti- 
tude, and is able thenceforth to brave manfully the 
incidental storms of life. 

For this moral strengthening of character, no less 
than for the invigorating of mental energies, the sys- 
tem of Ignatius Loyola prescribes an education which 
is public, — public, as being that of many students to- 
gether, public as opposed to private tutorism, public, 
in fine, as requiring a sufhciency of the open, fearless 
exercise both of practical morality and of religion. 
Since the time of Ignatius, Dupanloup has observed 
on this subject : — 

" I have heard a man of great sense utter this re- 
markable word, ' If a usurping and able government 
wanted to get rid of great races in the country, and 
root them out, it need only come down to this, that it 
require of them, out of respect for themselves, to bring 
up their children at home, alone, far from their equals, 
shut up in the narrow horizon of a private education 
and a private tutor.' -' ^ 

The youthful material, on which the Jesuit system 
had to work, may be described from two points of view. 
There were home conditions ; and there were condi- 
tions too of the educational system, which was com- 
monly prevalent in those centuries. 

As to the circumstances of polite society at the boys' 

1 De La Haute Education Intellectuelle, liv. iv, cli. 4. Compare 
Vasco, vol. i, n. 24. 



100 LOYOLA. 

homes, Charles Lenormant, speaking of those times, 
tells us that " it was the privilege of a gentleman to 
have from his infancy the responsibility of his own 
actions. The fathers of families were the first to 
launch their sons into the midst of the perils of the 
world, even before the age of discernment had begun." ^ 
Even when boys' homes effect no positive harm, still, 
oidy too often, they answer this description, that they 
undo the best of what the school training is endeavor- 
ing to effect, by the discipline of subordination and 
the practice of obedience. 

It was this state of things which made the German 
Jesuits, in spite of themselves, petition for the requi- 
site authorization to open boarding colleges in the 
north, as had already been done in Portugal and else- 
Avhere. Eeluctantly the authorization was given by 
the general assembly.^ These convictus, or loensionyiats, 
were known to make great inroads on the time of the 
Fathers, on their study, their religious retirement, 
and especially on that immunity of theirs from finan- 
cial transactions, which they enjoyed as Eeligious. 
The Constitution of Ignatius offers no more than a 
bare foothold for the introduction of these colleges.^ 
Yet they have proved to be the most prolific nurseries 
of the eminent men, whom the Society has sent forth 
into all the walks of life. 

Not at home alone were effeminacy and dissolute- 

1 Essais sur I'lnstructioii Piiblique, par Charles Lenormant, 
membre de I'lnstitut; quoted by Rochemonteix, Le College Henri 
IV, torn, il, ch. 1, p. 49, iu his very instructive discussion on the 
Jesuit inter nat, ox pensionnat. 

2 Monumenta Germaniaa Paedai^ogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, p. 78. 

3 Const., part iv, ch. 3, decl. B. 



THE MORAL SCOPE PROPOSED. 101 

ness to be feared. There were couditions of life in 
the university system of the sixteenth century, which 
seemed considerably worse than those already de- 
scribed in the first chapter of this book. Possevino, 
who had spent ten years in the midst of the religious 
turmoils of France, and ten more in Papal legations 
to Germany, Poland, Hungary, Transylvania, Kussia, 
Muscovy, Sweden, and Gothia, and, after that, four 
more years in visiting the universities throughout 
Europe, notices that there were five ways, whereby a 
general corruption of society had come about. Pirst, 
he mentions the dissemination of bad books. Secondly, 
" the omission of lectures ; or, when lectures were 
held, such disturbances during them, with noise and 
yells, that there scarce remained an appearance of 
human, let alone of Christian, society. Thirdly, fac- 
tions. Fourthly, sensuality, to which cause must be 
referred that atrocious kind of iniquity, whereby the 
very walls of the schools were defiled with writing and 
the vilest pictures ; ^ so that the tender age, which had 
come innocent, must go away more polluted with 
crime, than imbued with learning, becoming hateful 
to God himself. Fifthly, an aversion for Divine wor- 
ship, inasmuch as disputations and graduating festiv- 
ities and lectures have constantly been transferred to 
those days and those hours, when by Divine precept 
public worship is due." ^ 

The means organized by Ignatius into a method of 
moral education I will sketch in the words of his 

1 Turpissimis signis. 

2 Bibliotbeca Selecta, lib. i, cb. 44 ; Quasnam tetenderit insidias 
bumani generis bostis, etc. 



102 LOYOLA. 

contemporaries. Ribadeneira, his biographer, says : 
'' Those means are employed by our Masters, whereby 
virtue is conceived in the hearts of the pupils, is pre- 
served and augmented. They are morning prayer, 
for obtaining grace from God not to fall into sin ; 
night prayer and a diligent reflection on all the 
thoughts, words, and actions of the day, to do away by 
contrition of heart with all the faults committed ; the 
attentive and devout hearing of Mass every day ; 
frequent and humble confession of sins to a Priest ; 
and if they are old enough, and great devotion 
recommends it, and their confessor approves of it, 
the reverent and pious reception of the Body of 
our Lord Jesus Clrrist ; teaching and explaining the 
rudiments of the Christian faith, whereby the boys 
are animated to live well and happily. Besides, great 
pains are taken to know and root out the vices of boy- 
hood, especially such as are somehow inborn and 
native to that age." ^ 

Here, by the way, the reader may advert to the 
fact that the confessional, of which mention is made, 
never comes in as part of the external means of moral 
development ; nor is a superior ever the confessor 
of those under his charge, except when desired to 
be so by the free choice of the subordinate himself. 
A general law of the Catholic Church ordains it 
thus. 

Loyola's biographer goes on to the various means, 

whereby, in such a multitude of young persons, the bad 

element, which unfortunately will never die, is either 

suppressed and kept at its lowest stage of a struggling 

J Ribadeneira, BoUaudists, nn. 373 seq. 



THE MORAL SCOPE PROPOSED. 103 

vitality, or else, if it happens to shoot up, is \Yeeded 
out. The garden will be none the poorer for that. 

Nil dabit inde minus ! 

There are, moreover, the division of students into 
categories and ranks, with their own officers from 
among the boys themselves ; the degrees of honor and 
preeminence assigned to good conduct and virtue ; 
especially the pious societies or Sodalities, into which 
none are admitted save the most studious and virtu- 
ous among the youths ; and that with a discrimina- 
tion in favor of superior merit^ even among such as 
answer the general description. The Sodalities of the 
Society of Jesus, as the subject of a study upon the 
management of youth, and indeed upon the cultivation 
of all ranks in Christian society, from Peer and Field 
Marshal and Yicero}^, down to the little boy beginning 
his career at school, would deserve a special discourse 
for themselves. 

I will continue now from Possevino, describing the 
Koman College, which was an object of daily obser- 
vation to the capital of the Christian world.^ " Here," 
he says, "you have two thousand youths, among 
whom reigns a deep silence ; there is no commotion. 
In the classes there is no reading of profane author or 
poetj who might inoculate the mind with defilement." 
I may remark that Ignatius had, from the very first, 
begun the method of expurgating authors, a task 
which was then carried on with diligence by the lit- 
erary men of the Society. Our author resumes : " A 
hundred daily occasions of sin and idleness are pre- 
1 Bibliotheca Selecta, lib. 1, ch. 40. 



104 LOYOLA. 

eluded; a continuous series is going on of lectures, 
repetitions, disputations, conferences." Then he por- 
trays, as visible there in every-day life, many of the 
features which Ribadeneira has mentioned. 

While idleness was under a ban, vacation was not de- 
barred. Its principles, however, were defined on new 
lines. There was a sufficiency of rest to be provided ; 
but then no new intermissions were to be granted. The 
" sufficiency " would appear spare luxury to our looser 
times.^ " One week of doing nothing," say the Fath- 
ers of Upper Germany to the General Aquaviva, "is 
more hurtful to students, than four weeks in which 
some literary exercise is kept up " ; and " parents 
take very much amiss this state of idleness, if the boys 
remain on our hands." ^ 

In all this, there was no question of making relig- 
ious men of the students. It was a question only of 
Eeligious making men of them. Father George Bader, 
Provincial of Upper Germany in 1585, left it in his 
instructions for the management of the convictus, at 
Dilingen, that "the Prefects were not to despair or 
despond, if they did not see at once, or in all, the im- 
provement desired ; nor were they to require the per- 
fection of Eeligious from them, nor introduce among 
them such practices of life, as elsewhere the students 
could not keep up in their calling ; but the directors 

1 Ratio Studiorum of 1599 and 1832, Reg. Prov. 37. The higher 
courses are allowed a midsummer vacation of between one and two 
months; in the lower or literary course, Rhetoric is allowed one 
month, the others classes less. Besides certain feast-days during 
the year, every week must have one day free, which, in the higher 
courses, is the whole day, hut, in the lower, is only the latter part of it. 

2 1G02 ; Monumenta Germauife P?edagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, p. 467. 



THE MORAL SCOPE PROPOSED. 105 

should be content with having a manner of life fol- 
lowed, which was ordinary, virtuous, and pious/" ^ 

According to this idea, the religious teacher being a 
man, a citizen, and an ecclesiastic, his educational in- 
dustry has produced its effect, when it has made accom- 
plished men, worthy citizens, competent Ecclesiastics, 
or Eeligious ; " when in the school," says Eibaden- 
eira, " as in an arena, the students, foreshadowing the 
future, practise already, in their own way, those same 
virtues and duties, which in maturer years they will 
exhibit, in the management of the republic."^ The rich 
material of the youthful mind and soul receives the 
manifold influence which the teacher's mind and heart 
possess ; and receives it after the manner of the recipi- 
ent, according to his future vocation. 

What the Jesuit professors, in fact, were like, those 
who in after years showed themselves but little 
friendly to the Order did not omit to testify. " Dur- 
ing the seven years," says Voltaire, " that I lived in 
the house of the Jesuits, what did I see among them ? 
The most laborious, frugal, and regular life, all their 
hours divided between the care they spent on us and 
the exercises of their austere profession. I attest the 
same as thousands of others brought up by them, like 
myself ; not one will be found to contradict me. Hence 
I never cease wondering how any one can accuse 
them of teaching corrupt morality. . . . Let any one 
place side by side the 'Provincial Letters' and the 
Sermons of Father Bourdaloue ; he will learn in the 
former the art of raillery, the art of presenting things, 

iMonumenta Germaniae Paedagogica, vol. ii, Paclitler, p. 411. 
- Bollandists, n. 374. 



106 LOYOLA. 

indifferent in themselves, under aspects which make 
them appear criminal, the art of insulting with elo- 
quence ; he will learn from Father Bourdaloue, that of 
being severe to oneself, and indulgent toward others."^ 

History is uniform in bearing witness that the gen- 
eral effects of their teaching corresponded to the ex- 
ample of these Professors, in spite of the fact, as 
Cretineau-Joly puts it, that even from the hands of 
religious men the impious can still come forth, as, in 
the school of the wise, dunces and dolts may still be 
found.^ Man is still and always free. However, if it 
follows thence, that not only a positive, but a negative 
result may always be expected ; such a double result 
may be set off by two consoling reflections, which I 
will mention, in order to complete the picture of this 
education in practice. 

The first is, that since, from the school of virtue 
and religiousness, vice can still issue forth, and, as the 
General Vitelleschi says, a good education, though 
almost omnipotent, may, like the morning dew, evapo- 
rate and be lost in the first heat of manhood's passions,^ 
what would be the results of the system, if it had less 
piety to enlighten, or less of an organized practice of 
virtue to confirm, the minds and hearts of the young ? 

Another reflection is this : that human nature, how- 
ever erratic by defect of will, still remains beautiful, 

1 Lettre 7 fevrier, 1740 ; CEuvres, torn, viii, p. 1128 ; edit. 1817. 

2 Cretineau-Joly, Histoire de la Compagnie de Jesus, torn, iv, ch. 
3, p. 209; edit. 1851. This chapter and the following one, ch. 4, in 
Cretineau-Joly, pp. 158-207, contain the most varied information on 
our subject, regarding professors, writers, scholars, etc. 

3 Epistola de Institutione Jiiventutis, et Studiis Litterarum Pro- 
movendis, 1639; Mon. Germ. Paed., vol. ix, Pachtler, p. 62. 



THE MORAL SCOPE PROPOSED. 107 

thanks to the original gift of God. Whence it comes, 
that impiety is found beautifully inconsistent ; and, 
in its lucid intervals, it makes the due acknowledg- 
ment, as he did, who once said : — 

thou, that with surpassing gloiy crowned, 
Look'st from thy sole dominion ... 

To thee I call. . . . 

To tell thee how I hate thy beams, 

That bring to my remembrance from what state 

1 fell.i 

The Society of Jesus has many a time been elegantly 
blessed and cursed by the same eloquent lips and pens. 
The secret of this magisterial ascendency, as Ig- 
natius of Loyola projected it, was to be found in 
the Masters' intellectual attainments, which naturally 
impressed youthful minds; and also in a paternal 
affection which, of course, won youthful hearts. Does 
anything more seem necessary for the full idea of 
authority ? The committee appointed by the canton 
of Eribourg, for restoring the Fathers to their old col- 
lege in 1818, mention as one reason for having done 
so, that " the will cannot be chained ; it will not sub- 
mit to restraint. You can win it, but not subjugate 
it." And they speak of that "most lively attach- 
ment" ever abiding in the hearts of students towards 
members of the Order, which they have known as the 
cradle of their youth.- The same Father Bader, 
whom I have quoted before, defines where authority 
lies, w^hen he says : " Let not the Prefects consider 
their authority to consist in this, that the students are 

1 Paradise Lost, book iv. 

2 Notice sur le Pensionnat . etc. a Frihourg en Suisse, 1839, pp. 56 seq. 



108 LOYOLA. 

on hand in obedience to their nod, their every word, 
or their very look; but in this, that the boys love 
them, approach with confidence, and make their diffi- 
culties known." Speaking of penalties, he goes on : 
" The pupils should be led to understand that such rep- 
rehensions are necessary and are prompted by affection; 
and let it be the most grievous rebuke or penalty for 
them to know that they have offended their Prefect." ^ 

Thus, in the education of the sixteenth century, 
there came into play a gradual reaction against the 
harshness and brusquer manners of earlier times. 
Speaking of conversation with the students, the Gen- 
eral Vitelleschi, in 1639, gives characteristic direc- 
tions : " It will be very useful if from time to time 
the Professors treat with their auditors, and con- 
verse with them, not about vain rumors and other 
affairs that are not to the purpose, but about those 
which appertain most to their well-being and educa- 
tion ; going down to particulars that seem most to 
meet their wants; and showing them, in a familiar 
way, how they ought to conduct themselves in studies 
and piety. Let the Professors be persuaded that a 
single talk in private, animated with true zeal and 
prudence on their part, will penetrate the heart more 
and work more powerfully, than many lectures and 
sermons given in common." - 

Here then I have touched on the secrets of success, 
those principles which commanded esteem, and shed 
about the Order an unmistakable halo of educational 
prestige. 

1 1585 ; Monumenta Germanise Psedagogica, vol. ii, Paclitler, p. 411. 
2 Monumenta Germanise Psedagogica, vol. ix, Pachtler, p. 59. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

IGNATIUS ADMINISTERING THE COLLEGIATE SYSTEM. 
HIS DEATH. 

The first two colleges were established in the same 
year, 1542, — one of them in the royal university at 
Coimbra in Portugal, the other at Groa in Hindustan. 
Though they were organized at an early date, only 
two years after the foundation of the Order, when as 
yet no system had been formally adopted, neverthe- 
less these two first colleges, a good many thousands of 
miles apart, were found to have been established in 
precisely the same way. Francis Xavier, having been 
assigned to the apostolic ministry in the East, began 
a university there, in which all the sciences and 
branches were professed, just as in the European col- 
leges. This became the base of operations for Japan^ 
China, Persia, Ethiopia, and the other nations of the 
East. Forty years later, there were as many as one 
hundred and twenty Jesuits in the college. 

In 1542, Ignatius had a select body of fifteen or six- 
teen young men studying in Paris ; others he had 
placed in Padua or elsewhere. He availed himself of 
the actual universities until such time as he should 
have his own. War breaking out between the Em- 
peror Charles V and the French King Francis, all 
Spaniards and Belgians were ordered out of France. 

109 



110 LOYOLA. 

Such as were Italians remaining in Paris, the other 
young Jesuits crossed the frontier to Louvain, under 
the charge of Father Jerome Domenech. There the 
Latin oratory of the youth, Francis Strada, whom Le- 
fevre, on his way through Belgium, supplied with 
matter for his orations,^ helped to build up the Order 
rapidly with two kinds of men, talented youths, who 
were captivated by the things they saw and heard, 
and men already eminent, who were equally at- 
tracted by the scope of the new Institute. In the 
young Strada preaching and the eminent Lefevre 
going out of his way to subsidize him with matter, we 
catch a family glimpse of that intensified force which 
can be developed in a closely bound organization. 

Conspicuously wanting in gifts of presence and of 
learning, Francis Villanova, sent by Ignatius to the 
university seat of Alcala, won such an ascendency 
there by his other qualities as a Priest, that a com- 
modious and flourishing college was soon founded. 
Father Jerome Domenech endowed one in his native 
city of Valentia, 1543. Lefevre and Araoz, following 
awhile by royal request in the suite of the Princess 
Mary, daughter of the Portuguese King, and queen of 
the Spanish King, founded a college at Yalladolid. 
In Gandia, his own duchy, Francis Borgia erected 
and richly equipped a university, which was the first 
placed in the hands of the Society. 

Colleges at Barcelona, Bologna, Saragossa, arose 
within the next two or three years ; also at Messina, 
Palermo, Venice, and Tivoli. It is evident that Igna- 
tius had a world of administration already on his 
Manare, Comnientarius. 



THE COLLEGIATE SYSTEM. Ill 

hands. As early as March 16, 1540, he had excused 
himself from granting an application, because of 
" much pains he was taking in sending some to the In- 
dies, others to Ireland and to parts of Italy." Now, 
though his forces were increasing, yet he was husband- 
ing them ; and even so, while refusing many applica- 
tions, he seemed to be everywhere. But this need not 
be so much a matter of wonder, if we consider that it 
is the right place, and the right move at the proper 
time, that commands other places, movements, and 
times. 

At the death of Lefevre, in 1546, the onward move- 
ment of these select men, coming in contact, either 
friendly or adverse, with every actual power in Eu- 
rope, was so impressive for its strategic completeness, 
and so far-reaching in its results, that, as an historian 
remarks, " These ten men, so ably chosen, had accom- 
plished to their entire satisfaction, in less than six 
years, what the most absolute monarch would not have 
ventured to exact of the most blind devotedness." ^ 

Hardly had Lefevre departed this life, when his 
place was taken by the last man whom he had dealt 
with, Francis Borgia, Duke of Gandia, the friend and 
cousin of the Emperor Charles V. Still wearing his 
ducal robes, until his temporal affairs could be settled, 
he came to Rome in 1550. He founds the Eoman Col- 
lege, which is the centre and type of all Jesuit col- 
leges. 

It was begun on February 18th, 1551, at the foot of 
the Capitol, with fourteen members of the Order, and 
Father John Peltier, a Frenchman, at their head. 
1 Cretineau-Joly, torn, i, ch. 3, p. 150. 



112 LOYOLA. 

Doubling this number in the following September, the 
College moved to a larger building. The Professors 
taught Ehetoric, and three languages, Hebrew, Greek, 
and Latin. In 1553, the entire course of Philosophy 
and Theology was added. The number of Jesuit 
students among the auditory amounted, in this year, 
to sixty, and, in the following year, to one hundred. 
A few years later, Vittoria Toffia, niece of Paul IV, 
and wife of Camillo Orsini, provided the institution 
with a splendid property. Thenceforth, the number 
of Jesuit students alone was as high as 220, brought 
together from sixteen or more different nations, most 
of them familiar with many languages, all speaking 
by rule the tongue of the country in which they were 
residing, and all competent to speak and teach in the 
one universal and learned language of the time, the 
Latin tongue. 

Of students not belonging to the Order, nearly 
twenty colleges are enumerated, at some periods, as 
following the courses of this central Koman College. 
They included the colleges of the English, the Greeks, 
the Scotch, the Maronites, the Irish, and the Ne- 
ophytes; the Colleges named Capranica, Fuccioli, 
Mattel, Pamfili, Salviati, Ghislierij the German Col- 
lege and the College Gymnasio; also the Koman 
Seminary. Of the 2107 students counted, as follow- 
ing the courses at a given time, 300 were in theology. 
The most eminent professors filled the chairs, in suc- 
cessive generations ; theologians like Suarez and 
Vasquez, commentators like Cornelius a Lapide and 
Maldonado, founders or leaders in the schools of na- 
tional history like Mariana and Pallavicini ; Clavius, 



THE COLLEGIATE SYSTEM. 113 

reformer of the Gregorian calendar ; Kircher, univer- 
sal in all exact sciences ; and so of the rest ; while 
the cycle of colleges over the world remained pro- 
vided with their requisite forces, and maintained their 
own prestige.^ 

The emblem of this institution was Theology, en- 
throned, as it were, in a temple of imposing propor- 
tions. At her right and left two Maids of Honor stand; 
they are the Natural Sciences. One of them, repre- 
senting Mathematics, is placing the celestial sphere 
under the feet of the august goddess seated ; the other, 
representing Physics, is subjecting, in like manner, 
the orb of the earth. The legend attached reads : 
Leges impone subactis. 

In forty or fifty years such an investment of talent, 
character, and virtue, had been made, by management 
within the Order, and by that power to which Igna- 
tius always appealed. Divine Providence, that Kome 
had seen pass through this house the most distin- 
guished men of the age, in every line of intellectual 
life, of moral eminence, and of all that could elevate 
the thoughts of noble and generous minds. For the 
young, in particular, three characters came, figures 
that were to fill the niches and terminate the aisles 
of contemplation, as the ideal choice of the bloom of 
youth — Stanislaus Kostka, a young Polish noble of 
seventeen, Aloysius G-onzaga, an Italian prince of 
twenty -three, and John Berchmans, a Flemish burgher 
of twenty-two. Being what they were, and leaving 
this life at such an age, they have appropriated in the 
Catholic Church the honors of the young. 

1 Compare Cretineau-Joly, torn, i, ch. 6; torn, iv, chs. 3, 4. 



114 LOYOLA. 

Witli regard to Germany, it is with a classic touch, 
as of Caesar's style, that an historian introduces the sub- 
ject thus : Germayiia, quo gravius laboravit, hoc studiosius 
adjuta est; Ignatio nulla regio commendatior} Nor 
will the association be considered far-fetched, if, sub- 
stituting for Caesar's pen and Caesar's sword, Loyola's 
legislation for letters and his strategic tactics, one 
catches a suggestive idea, on the present topic, from 
that statue of the same Koman General, which repre- 
sents him as holding in one hand a sword, and in the 
other a pen, with the words inscribed underneath. Ex 
utroqne Coesar. 

Of the services of those nine men, with whom he 
founded the Order, he spent a large part upon Ger- 
many. Lefevre was there, Le Jay, Bobadilla, Sal- 
meron, Laynez ; not to mention the great Canisius (de 
Hondt), a young man already in the field, who was to 
stay there for half a century. It is of these men and 
their work that Eanke writes : ^' Of what country 
were these, the first of their Order amongst us ? 
They were natives of Spain, Italy, the Netherlands. 
For a long time, even the name of their Society was 
unknown, and they were styled the Spanish Priests. 
They filled the chairs of the universities, and there 
met with disciples willing to embrace their faith. 
Germany has no part in them ; their doctrine, their 
constitution, had been completed and reduced to form, 
before they appeared in our midst. We may then 
regard the progress of their Institute here, as a new 

1 The more heavily the strain of war bore upon Germany, the 
more assiduously were the succors sent in; no part of the field 
was more under Loyola's eye. 



THE COLLEGIATE SYSTEM. 115 

participation of Latin Europe in German Europe. 
They have defeated us upon our own soil, and wrested 
from us a share of our fatherland." ^ 

In concert with the Duke of Bavaria and the Em- 
peror Ferdinand, Ingolstadt and Vienna became the 
two first centres of operations. Ingolstadt was in- 
deed destined to become soon one -of the most repre- 
sentative universities of the Company, and the Ger- 
man centre of what has been called the "Counter- 
Reformation." 2 But Ignatius would not accept it, 
without the clearest enunciation of some fundamental 
principles in the educational work of his Institute. 
I will mention them. 

First, the condition of all higher studies, and of lower 
studies as well, was such, that, as Ignatius said, it was 
useless to begin with the top, which without a good 
foundation will never stand. The disappointment of 
individual hopes and of general expectation would be 
the only result, with demoralization for the future. 
Let Literature, he said, and Philosophy be gone 
through satisfactorily; then Theology may be ap- 
proached. Literature must come first of all. Hence 
Polanco, the secretary of Ignatius, writes to the Duke 
of Bavaria, in 1551, that the " Jesuits must begin by 
undertaking preparatory teaching, with Professors 
capable of inspiring their young students, little by 
little, with a taste for Theology." ^ 

1 History of the Papacy, vol. i, book v, § .3; The First Jesuit 
Schools in Germany; Foster's translation, p. 417. 

2 Compare Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. ix, Pachtler, 
Nr. 72 ; Nr. 91 ; Nr. 92, etc. 

3 This very instructive correspondence may be seen sketched in 
Genelli's Life of St. Ignatius of Loyola, part ii, ch. 8, pp. 342 seg. 1889. 



116 LOYOLA. 

Secondly, we may recall to mind what was mentioned 
before/ that Ignatius provides for Law and Medicine 
in his universities, but the professors of these depart- 
ments are to be taken from without the Order. Now, 
quite as a counterpart to this, we find him declaring 
to the Duke of Bavaria, that it is at variance with his 
plan to lend any Professors or Lecturers of the Order 
for work outside of Jesuit institutions. Therefore 
a college must be founded for them, or the Duke 
cannot have them. 

The reason for this reserve is not hard to discern. 
In an organization like his, there are no men at large 
to lend. And, were the most eminent men assigned 
for work outside of the Jesuit colleges and universi- 
ties, the younger generation of the Order would prac- 
tically be debarred from the influence of their type of 
eminence. And again, if there were eminent men 
laboring in a country, without the stable abode of a 
Jesuit college in the same place, there would be no 
propagating the distinctive work of the Order itself, 
by means of the men of that country. Yet, as he pro- 
jected a native clergy for Germany, so he intended 
native Jesuits for the Germans. Besides, it does not 
seem possible to accept of a chair outside, except on 
the basis of some pecuniary consideration for the in- 
dividual Professor. Now this is a situation which he 
does not accept. A Professed Father is not to sacri- 
fice his religious life and independence, bound to a 
work outside of the Order's own houses, and that for a 
valuable consideration. Ignatius accepts of no obli- 
gations to fill chairs, save as accepting universities, 
1 Ch. 6, above, p. 84. 



THE COLLEGIATE SYSTEM. 117 

which coutain those chairs.^ And, as to pecuniary 
considerations, his principle is, Gratis accepistis, gra- 
tis date; "Give freely what you have freely re- 
ceived." To this cardinal principle the statutes of 
so many universities, if not of all, in which a Jesuit 
College conducted any of the faculties, distinctly 
refer, as the ground for exempting Keligious of the 
Society from all pecuniary charges, incidental to 
university affairs.^ No ingenious compromise was 
admitted which tended to relax this principle, regard- 
ing a pecuniary consideration.^ On the contraiy, the 
most legitimate and ample revenues offered were not 
accepted as a recommendation for a university, it 
there were any conditions whatever not in keeping 
with the Institute.^ 

The German College in Rome was founded by Ig- 
natius, to form German ecclesiastics for the Germans. 
At that time benefices and parochial cures, in the 
German Emperor's dominions, Avere generally vacant 
for want of Priests. It soon came to pass that Priests 
were found to be in waiting, for want of benefices. It 
was not merely for the ordinary cure of souls that 
this college received so much attention from Loyola. 
True to himself, ever contemplating something emi- 
nent, — rarum et eximium facinus, as he said once to 

1 Const., pars iv, c. 7, decl. E. 

2 Compare Mon. Germ. Paed., vol. ii, Pachtler, Nr. 38, the theo- 
logical faculty of the University of Wiirzburg, p. 303, n. 7 ; Mon. 
Germ. Psed., vol. ix, Pachtler, Nr. 67, p. 102, and Nr. 68, p. 178, the 
theological and philosophical faculties of the University of Trier, etc. 

3 Compare Monumeuta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, 
p. 38, note about Perugia. 

•* Ibid., p. 51, note about Valencia. 



118 LOYOLA. 

the Scholastics of Coimbra, "that rare and excellent 
achievement, which is worth more than six hundred 
common ones," — he was founding a seminary for 
preachers, professors, prelates. If the students sent 
from Germany, to be admitted and supported on this 
foundation, are not noblemen, "at all events," writes 
Ignatius in 1552, "let nobility of soul not be wanting 
to them." ^ This is the institution which caused so 
much vexation to non-Catholic Germany. It renovated 
the priesthood. 

Thus, then, in a short official career of sixteen years, 
Ignatius had the gratification of seeing a new and 
vast educational policy crowned with success. In 
spite of the active opposition which powerful interests 
in Eome led against him — and a vigorous siege from 
the side of the schoolmasters was not to be despised, 
nor should it fail to be recorded, — in spite of the des- 
perate hostility of the Sorbonne, which was but be- 
ginning its war upon the Society in France, with 
storms at Toledo and Saragossa flanking his movements 
in Spain ; in spite of the open war with heresy in 
Protestant Germany, where acrimony, distilled to its 
last degree of concentration, was to embitter history, 
till the days of Eanke and Janssen should come, and 
begin to vindicate the truth of history ; thanks to the 
labors of Ignatius, the monopoly of education was be- 
ing broken down ; the old universities were no longer 
either the sole depositories of superior instruction, 
or the arbiters of the intellectual life of Europe ; and 
all the best learning, which the most accomplished 

1 Monumenta GerniauifE Paidagogica, vol. ii, p. 369, Letter to 
Father Kessel. 



THE COLLEGIATE SYSTEM. 119 

men could impart, was now being given gratuitously, 
and in as many centres of educational activity as the 
Society was allowed to create. And, whereas it is 
put down to the credit of Gern^ny, that sixteen of 
the old universities had arisen on its soil, now, in the 
German Assistency of the Society, there arose more 
than sixteen Jesuit universities, besides two hundred 
colleges. And, in virtue of Papal charters, it was 
already an accomplished fact, that all the powers of 
universities, with regard to the degrees of Bachelor, 
Master, Licentiate, and Doctor, were vested in the 
head of the Order, w^ho could delegate the same to 
subordinate Superiors.^ 

No wonder all the faculties of Christendom con- 
sidered the Order an intruder and an aggressor. It 
might be considered so to-day. Free and universal 
education w^as at the doors of all. We, men of the 
nineteenth century, may flatter ourselves that it was 
the spirit of our age which breathed upon the Order 
of Jesus, three centuries before the time. Perhaps 
so. But we shall have to w^ait a few centuries more, 
even beyond the nineteenth century, before we come to 
such education given universally and given gratui- 
tously. For it is one of the most palpable character- 
istics of all educational and other philanthropy which 
w^e know of, that it is an extremely expensive thing. 

Let us now close our sketch of the great educator. 
Saint Ignatius of Loyola. All the particulars of his 
death have been preserved for us by those who were 
with him at the last. They were not his first compan- 

1 Compare Monumenta Germaniae PaBdagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, 
Papstliclie Privilegieu, pp. 1-8, 



120 LOYOLA. 

ions. Of these, the few who survived at the present 
date, sixteen years after the foundation of the Society, 
were scattered in various climes. The members with 
him were John Polanco, his polished secretary, Andre 
Frusis, a Frenchman, one of the most gifted of lin- 
guists and of litterateurs, Christopher Madrizi, a uni- 
versity Doctor of Alcala, and. Jerome Nadal, whom in 
Paris, long before, Ignatius had endeavored to enlist 
in the service of his Institute ; but Nadal had rejected 
all overtures, pointing to the Bible under his arm, and 
saying he wanted no other institute save that. He 
was a man of the first quality in judgment and the 
governing cast of mind. Later on, when the exploits 
of Saint Francis Xavier in India and Japan had be- 
come the talk and admiration of Europe, Nadal en- 
tered the Order, so cautiously that one might say he 
did it reluctantly ; yet he did it. His subsequent ca- 
reer showed that he had made a mistake, when he 
missed a place in the very first ranks. 

Others were close by. Laynez lay in a sick-room ; 
as was thought, on his death-bed; Mendoza too, and 
Martin Olave. The latter, some thirty years before, 
was a boy whom Ignatius met, when as a poor pilgrim 
he reached Alcala from Barcelona, to take up his uni- 
versity studies. The boy gave him an alms, the first 
received by Ignatius in that city. Time had passed 
since then. The boy had become a Master of Arts, 
and, in 1543, a Doctor of the Paris University, remark- 
able in many ways for virtue and learning. Now, a 
man of mature age and great authority, he had em- 
braced the Institute of Ignatius. He alone of the in- 
valids died immediately after his master in religion. 



THE COLLEGIATE SYSTEM. 121 

The latter, on July the 30th, told thein he was 
about to die. But, diseases having preyed upon him 
for years, the physicians did not confirm what he said; 
and Father Ignatius made no more statements on the 
subject. He spent the evening in his usual manner, 
transacted some business with perfect serenity of 
mind, and then was left alone till the morrow. 

The morrow is just dawning, when they find him 
breathing his last. He declines to accept any po- 
tion. Joining his hands together, with his eyes fixed 
heavenward, and pronouncing the name of "Jesus," 
the founder of the Society of Jesus passes away from 
this life, in the Professed House at Kome. 

It was the thirty-first day of July, 1556. He was 
sixty-five years of age. Thirty-five years had passed, 
since the Knight of the King of Navarre had, with 
such solemnity, changed his garb, hung up his sword 
and poniard in the sanctuary of Montserrat, and vowed 
himself to be a Knight in the Kingdom of Christ. 

All the time since then he had spent in extreme 
poverty, in the practice of austerity, in the laborious 
travels of a pilgrim, in the more laborious pursuit of 
letters, under the stress of persecution, prisons, and 
chains, and under the relentless fatigue of a universal 
foresight, vigilance, and administration. He had 
proved himself a leader and commander of men, as 
nature had made him to be, and as history shows that 
he was. 

In an especial manner, he is famous for his prudence. 
Approaching every enterprise with the most varied 
and exhaustive deliberation, spending forty days of 
meditat'ion on determining a single point of the Con- 



122 LOYOLA. 

stitution, throwing upon his premises every kind of 
light from consultation and advice, and having habit- 
ually in his room, for reference, only two books, the 
New Testament, and the Imitation of Christ, he 
thought out every plan to the last degree of definite- 
ness and consistency. Having once reached such a 
definite conclusion, he was not easy to move thence- 
forth out of the direction taken. Quite otherwise. 
With the utmost vigilance, he aj^plied himself and he 
applied all the means, whether they were persons avail- 
able or measures necessary, to the execution of his pur- 
pose. Even when, as often seemed to be the case, he 
was starting from principles other than those of or- 
dinary human foresight, apparently from a pure trust 
in Divine Providence, he did not exempt himself from 
applying, with the same circumspection and diligence 
as ever, the means adequate to execute what he had 
begun. Waiting fourteen hours, and fasting withal, 
in the ante-chamber of a prince, lest the propitious 
occasion should slip, writing out the same letter twice, 
thrice, and oftener, lest the right thing should not be 
said in the right way, and sending out thirty letters 
in one night, he exhibited, in the administration of 
great things and small, what had marked all his pre- 
vious deliberation, the highest degree of consummate 
prudence and of practical perfection. 

If, in all this, there are many eminent qualities to 
admire, there is a resultant fact more marvellous still. 
He did his work so that it went on without him. 
And hence, if, whenever he happened to be anywhere 
on the field of action, account had to be taken of such 
a man, it will not perhaps appear singular that his Order 



THE COLLEGIATE SYSTEM. 123 

too, even when ostracized and expatriated, is taken into 
account, if it is anywhere visible on the social horizon. 
While I am writing this, three hundred and fifty years 
after his time, the Bundesrath, on closing the Kultur- 
kampf, and admitting all the exiled Orders of the 
Catholic Church back into the Empire of Germany, 
makes an exception of the Jesuits. It bans the Order 
of Jesus, and gives no reason, beyond the palpable 
fact that the Order is what it is. Evidently, Ignatius 
of Loyola did his work so as to make it go on without 
him ; and go on just as he made it. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

SUBSEQUENT ADMINISTRATIONS. 

According to a contemporary chroniele for the year 
1556, the first announcement of the death of Ignatius 
caused such a profound sentiment of grief in all mem- 
bers of the Order, that a degree of stupor seemed for 
the moment to possess them. But this was only tem- 
porary. It was followed by a marked alacrity of 
spirit appearing everywhere. The Society was begin- 
ning its course.^ 

In the first general assembly, Eather James Laynez 
was elected to succeed the founder, in the ofiice of 
General Superior. The matters which concerned the 
assembly in its legislation, and the new General in his 
administration, were the proper temporal foundation 
of colleges, the admission of convictus or boarding- 
colleges, and other questions, which may be noted in 
the Monumenta Germanioe Pcedagogica.^ Laynez gov- 
erned the Order during nine years, till 1565. 

Father Francis Borgia, who had resigned his duke- 
dom, and by this example led Charles V to seek repose 
in the monastery of St. Yuste, was elected third Gen- 
eral His virtues and his presence, wherever he ap- 

1 Bollandists, J. P., n. 612. 

2 The pedagogic legislation, from this date onwards, is to be found 
in Monumenta Germanise Psedagogica, vol. ii, Pachtler, pp. 70-125. 

124 



SUBSEQUENT ADMINISTKATIUNS. 125 

peared, exercised such a magic influence that, when 
he had merely passed through Spain, colleges had 
sprung up as from the soil. Three Provinces had 
been formed in that country alone, within thirteen 
years from the foundation of the Society. But this 
multiplication of colleges, often not sufiiciently en- 
dowed for their future development, was already seen 
to be one of the threatened weaknesses of the Company. 
The special legislation passed at the time of his elec- 
tion regarded the proper establishment, in every Prov- 
ince, of philological, philosophical, and theological 
seminaries, for the formation of Professors.-' Instead 
of the proportionate number of Jesuit students being 
supported on each collegiate foundation, this legisla- 
tion, and much more that followed later, ordained a 
system of concentration in seminaries of humane letters, 
philosophy, science, and divinity, which were conducted 
respectively by corps of eminent Professors selected 
for the purpose, and were maintained either on some 
munificent foundation specially made for this object, 
or by a due proportion of the other collegiate founda- 
tions. At this date it was that colleges for the for- 
mation of diocesan clergy, or '' Bishops' Seminaries," 
as they are commonly called, were coming into exis- 
tence, in accordance with the decrees of the Council 
of Trent. The manner of admitting them, as annexed 
to colleges of the Society, and thereby availing them- 
selves of the Jesuit courses, was regulated by this 
assembly. In no case were they to be provided with 
a corps of Professors distinct from the faculty of the 
college. 

1 Pachtler, ibid., p. 75. 



126 LOYOLA. 

In 1573 Father Everard Mercurian, a Belgiaiij was 
elected . to succeed Saint Francis Borgia. He was 
sixty-eight years old at the time of his election, and 
lived eight years after. He drew out of the Constitu- 
tion various summaries of rules for the guidance of 
the chief officers in the Society. Those which concern 
studies are given in a few pages of the Monumenta} 

At his death, a young man thirty-seven years old, 
who had entered the Order only about twelve years 
before, was elected to succeed him. This was Clau- 
dius Aquaviva, son of Prince John Aquaviva, Duke of 
Atri. He was a man who, for his superior executive 
abilities and his services rendered to the Order in 
times most critical, has been regarded as a second 
founder. As to what his administration saw effected 
in the matter of education, the Ratio Studiorum bears 
witness. He governed the Society during thirty-four 
years. 

Mutius Yitelleschi, one of the mildest and gentlest 
of men, but not on that account ineffective in his gov- 
ernment, succeeded Aquaviva, filling a term of thirty- 
one years, from 1615 to 1646. Various pedagogic inter- 
ests occupied the attention of the general assembly, 
by which he was elected ; in particular, the promotion 
of Humane Letters, the means of supplying Profes- 
sors, and the searching character of the examinations 
ordained, at every step in their studies, for the mem- 
bers of the Society. 

The farther the Society advanced in history, the 
less there was of new legislation. The tension grew 
on the side of administration ; and the urgency shown 
1 Pachtler, ibid., pp. 126-132. 



SUBSEQUENT ADMINISTRATIONS. 127 

by general assemblies evinces this. The philological 
seminary was developed for the junior scholastics ; 
and a classic form drawn up for it by Jouvancy. As 
distinguished talents for preaching and governing 
were treated with the special favor of being allowed 
to compensate for some deficiencies, in the qualifica- 
tions requisite for the degree of Profession in the 
Order, so special legislation provided for similar emi- 
nence in literature, in Oriental languages, in Greek 
and Hebrew. 

Mathematics had, from the first, been a department 
of activity native to the energies of the Company. 
The schools of Geography and History developed in 
the seventeenth and at the beginning of the eigh- 
teenth centuries. The school of modern Physics then 
asserting itself, and running so close upon the field of 
Metaphysics, was subjected to regulations in the as-, 
semblies of 1730 and 1751. 

After the restoration of the Order, social and edu- 
cational circumstances being so immensely altered, the 
whole ground had to be surveyed again, with a view 
to adaptation ; the curriculum had to be expanded, and, 
where necessary, prolonged to meet the growing de- 
mands of the exact sciences ; and an indefinite number 
of specialties to be provided for, by the selection and 
fostering of special talents. These special line^ are, 
in the terms of the latest general assembly, " Ancient 
Languages, Philology, Ethnology, Archaeology, His- 
tory, Higher Mathematics, and all the Natural Sci- 
ences." We are thus brought down, in the history of 
general legislation, to the very recent date, 1883, less 
than ten years ago. 



128 LOYOLA. 

Meanwhile the Generals, on whom rested the burden 
of supervising all this, discharged the functions of ad- 
ministration. Father Vincent Caraffa promoted and 
urged on the pursuit of Belles Lettres, and defined posi- 
tions in Mathematics. Father Francis Piccolomini, in 
a general ordinance for all the higher studies, defined 
the stand to be taken by Professors, as representing 
the Society itself in their chairs ; so, too, Father Gos- 
wiu Nickel, with reference to certain new issues. 
Both he and his successor, Paul Oliva, had to face 
the new contingencies which arose from the charges 
of the Jansenists against what they called the loose 
moral teachings of the Jesuits. Father Oliva stimu- 
lated the pursuit of excellence in Humane Letters, in 
the Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldaic languages. 
Positions of Descartes, Leibnitz, as well as of certain 
others in Philosophy and Theology, were animad- 
verted upon by the Generals Tamburini and Retz. 
Father Ignatius Visconti urged again the pursuit of 
perfection in literary matters, and in the manner of 
conducting the schools of literature. And the Gen- 
eral Aloysius Centurione, shortly before the Suppres- 
sion, laid down the clearest principles with respect to 
the study of Moral Theology, and the examinations 
therein. Since the restoration of the Order, Fathers 
Eoothaan, Beckx, and the actual General, Anthony M. 
Anderledy, have devoted their own attention and 
directed that of the Society to the ways of accepting, 
with undiminished energy, the altered and unfavor- 
able situation, in which the present century has 
placed the Order, and hampers the revived Institute. 



SUBSEQUENT ADMINISTRATIONS. 129 

For this immense organization had been almost en- 
tirely destroyed by the stroke of a pen — the signature 
of Clement XIV given in pencil. They dispute 
whether he gave it at all; or, at least, whether he 
meant it. Howsoever that be, the Order, which had 
been erected on the principle of obedience, received 
the word and disappeared. The rock on which it 
had set its foot became the altar of a sacrifice ; and 
that a sacrifice offered without a struggle or a remon- 
strance, to betray any change in the spirit, with which 
Ignatius, two hundred and thirty-three years before, 
had vowed obedience to the Vicar of Christ. An epi- 
gram had been written, on the occasion of the first 
centenary, under a picture of Archimedes and his 
lever ; Archimedes is getting a foothold for his lever 
to move the world ; and beneath is the epigram : — 

Fac pedem figat, et terrain movebit. 

Its footing was now taken away, and it vanished from 
the world. 

While the Catholic Bourbon courts were thus suc- 
cessful in accomplishing a manoeuvre, which at fitful 
intervals they had essayed heretofore, the schismati- 
cal Empress, Catherine II of Eussia, denounced it and 
endeavored to counteract it. She wrote to the Pope 
in 1783, "that she was resolved to maintain these 
Priests against any power, whatsoever it was " ; and 
she was good to her word ; the Society remained un- 
suppressed in White Eussia. The Protestant King 
of Prussia, Frederick the Great, without exhibiting all 
the temper of the irascible lady, manipulated things 
as best he could to preserve the Society. 



130 LOYOLA. 

To sum up the Order's experiences, it may well be 
said that in public life there is no resurrection ; and 
the State which dies is dead forever. From infancy 
on through maturity it goes its way decrepit to the 
grave. Yet Balmez observes, "the Society of Jesus 
did not follow the common course of others, either in 
its foundation, its development, or its fall ; that Order, 
of which it is truly and correctly said, that it had 
neither infancy nor old age." ^ It rose again; and 
the flag of the Knight of Loyola, though worn and 
torn, was none the less fair for that : — 

Jam se ipso formosius est. 

For neither the violence of endurance, nor the vehe- 
mence of energy, although begetting intensest fatigue, 
is to be confounded with decay. 

It was not decay, a century ago, when expropria- 
tion and exile were the confessed policy of the courts 
in Europe ; when, as an American writer states it, in 
Portugal "Pombal cut the Gordian knot. ... He 
commenced by the expulsion of the Jesuits and the 
expropriation of their property. " Nor is it decay in 
the Order, when a liberal confederation in Switzer- 
land, on obtaining the political ascendency in 1848, 
suppresses the Jesuit University at Fribourg, and pro- 
vides in this wise, as an American writer records : 
" No religious society shall be allowed to teach ; and 
persons hereafter educated by the Jesuits, or by any 
of the Orders affiliated to the Jesuits, shall be incapa- 
ble of holding office in Church or State." ^ Policy 

1 European Civilization, ch. 46. 

2 National Education, part ii, vol. ii, p. 659 ; p. 74 ; New York, 1872. 



SUBSEQUENT ADMINISTRATIONS. 131 

like this, whether in the countries "expurgated," or 
iu countries thereunto "affiliated," proves no decay 
in the Order. 

But where decay may come in has been clearly 
pointed out by one of its Generals. Speaking of the 
Education of Youth and the Promotion of Humane 
Letters, Mutius Vitelleschi wrote, in J 639, "If ever 
the Society were to decline from that lofty position 
which it holds with so many provinces and peoples, 
such an event could come about in no other way than 
by failing to walk in the same steps, by which, with 
the Divine Grace, it has acquired that high esteem." ^ 

Those steps had been taken in various paths, of 
which only two have concerned us here. For its men 
of action were largely identified with the general his- 
tory of Europe ; and its men of the word, who tailed 
in apostolic work, at home or abroad, have entwined 
their memories in the history of souls, often ungrate- 
ful, yet always worthy of the toil. But its men of 
the school did a w^ork which we have sketched in a 
general way, and which we shall analyze in the second 
part of ttiis essay; while its men of the pen deserve a 
passing word of notice here. 

They concern us from a pedagogic point of view, in 
many ways. They wrote text-books, many of which 
are the basis of manuals in almost every line of edu- 
cation to-day, sometimes without the change of a 
Avord, and generally without acknowledgment. Be- 
sides that, their literary productions were, as a rule, 
the offspring of their labors in the schools. It might 
not be safe to estimate their standing as litterateurs, 

1 Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. ix, Pachtler, p. 57. 



132 LOYOLA. 

by the process which a Scotch Professor uses, who, 
in the course of forty-seven elegant lectures on Ehet- 
oric and Belles Lettres, sees little occasion to recog- 
nize the existence of this Jesuit school of literature, 
except when he goes out of his way to salute P^re 
Eapin in a somewhat questionable manner.^ Many 
of those whom the Scottish Professor himself does 
honor to, in his pages, were Jesuit scholars, — Bossuet, 
Corneille, Moliere, Tasso, Fontenelle, Diderot, Vol- 
taire, Bourdaloue, himself a Jesuit. It would be safer 
then to determine the standing of these Professors, 
who were in control of a great literary age, by look- 
ing at the golden age itself, that of Louis XIV. The 
majority of the brilliant figures, whom Dr. Blair 
names as illustrating the epoch,^ were all Jesuit 
scholars. Naturally, then, the fifty Professors of 
the Jesuit College at Paris were, as Cardinal Maury 
affirmed, a permanent tribunal of literature for all 
men of letters, a high court of judicature, a focus of 
public attention from which radiated the public opin- 
ion of the capital ; in short, as Piron had emphatically 
said, " the Star-chamber of literary reputations." ^ 

Devoted as they were to an austere profession, we 
may say of many among them, that they were not 
themselves romancers of a lively fancy or great poets ; 
and so far agree with Voltaire, who made this very 
remark about his old Professor, P^re Poree. Yet also, 

1 Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, Lecture 26. 

2 Lecture 35. 

3 Eulogy pronounced by the Cardinal Maury on his predecessor in 
the Institute of France, the Jesuit De Radonvilliers, 1807. — Ora- 
teurs Sacres, Migne, torn. Ixvii, column 1161. 



SUBSEQUENT ADMINISTRATIONS. 183 

without inconsistency I believe, we may agree with 
the spirit of P^re Poree's rejoiner, when the remark 
was reported to him, that "he was not one of the 
great poets." The Jesuit replied, "At least you may 
grant that I have been able to make some of them." 

And, should results be gauged on a wider basis than 
mere poetry, not a few of the most prominent men in 
European history would seem to have been the out- 
come of this system, men, too, who represented every 
possible school and tendency, in their subsequent lit- 
erary and public life. A few names show this. There 
are those of Descartes, Buff on, Justus Lipsius, Mura- 
tori, Calderon, Vico, the jurisconsult, founder of the 
philosophical school of history. There are Richelieu, 
Tilly, Malesherbes, Don John of Austria, Luxem- 
bourg, Esterhazy, Choiseul, with those of Saint Francis 
de Sales, founder of a religious Order, Lambertini, 
afterwards the most learned of Popes, under the name 
of Benedict XIV, and the present Pontiff, Leo XIII, 
also most erudite. These certainly represent many 
schools and tendencies, and they come, with many 
others, from the same schools.^ 

As authors of every kind, and in departments even 
far remote from the regular courses of the schools, 
Jesuit writers were, at the very least, so far related to 
Jesuit teachers, that, as we see in the bibliographical 
dictionary of the Society, all had been Professors, 
with scarcely an exception ; and almost all had pro- 
fessed Humanities, Belles Lettres, Rhetoric. 

When Father Nathaniel Southwell of Norfolk en- 

1 A classification of eminent students may be found in Cretineau- 
Joly, torn, iv, ch. 3, p. 207. 



134 LOYOLA. 

deavored, in 1676, to compile a dictionary of these 
authors, lie recorded those whose works had the qual- 
ification of a respectable bulk to recommend them. 
He entered the names and works of 2240 authors 
who answered this description. This was 136 years 
after the foundation of the Order. The enterprise 
was repeatedly taken in hand afterwards. The 
possibility of ever accomplishing it was much jeop- 
ardized by the Suppression. But at length the 
two Fathers De Backer published a series of seven 
quarto volumes, in the years 1853-1861 ; and this 
first step they followed up, in the years 1869- 
1876, with a new edition, in three immense folios, con- 
taining the names of 11,100 authors. This number 
does not include the supplements, with the names of 
writers in the present century, and of the anonymous 
and pseudonymous authors. Of this last category. 
Father Sommervogel's researches, up to 1884, enabled 
him to publish a catalogue, which fills a full octavo 
volume of 600 pages, with double columns. The wri- 
ters of this century, whom the De Backers catalogued 
in their supplement, fill 647 columns, folio, very small 
print. Altogether, the three folios contain 7086 col- 
umns, compressed with every art of typographical con- 
densation. 

Suarez of course is to be seen there, and Cornelius 
a Lapide, Petau, and the Bollandists. A single name, 
like that of Zaccaria, has 117 works recorded under 
it, whereof the 116th is in 13 volumes quarto, and 
the 117th in 22 volumes octavo. The Catechism of 
Canisius fills nearly 11 columns with the notices of 
its principal editions, translations, abridgments; the 



SUBSEQUENT ADMINISTRATIONS. 135 

commentaries upon it, and critiques. Rossignol has 
66 works to his name. The list of productions about 
Edmund Campian, for or against him, chiefly in 
English, fills, in De Backers' folio, two and a half 
columns of minutest print. Bellarmine, in Father 
Sommervogel's new edition, fills 50 pages, double 
column.^ 

Under each work are recorded the editions, transla- 
tions, sometimes made into every language, including 
Arabic, Chinese, Indian; also the critiques, and the 
works published in refutation — a controversial enter- 
prise which largely built up the Protestant theologi- 
cal literature of the times, and, in Bellarmiue's case 
alone, meant the theological Protestant literature for 
40 or 50 years afterwards. Oxford founded an anti- 
Bellarmine chair. The editions of one of this great 
man's works are catalogued by Sommervogel under 
the distinct heads of 54 languages.^ 

In the methodical or synoptic table, at the end of 
the De Backers' work, not only are the subjects well- 
nigh innumerable, which have their catalogues of 
authors' names attached to them, but such subjects too 
are here as might not be expected. Thus " Military 
Art " has 32 authors' names under it ; " Agriculture " 
11 ; " :Nravy " 12 ; " Music " 45 ; '' Medicine " 28. 

To conclude then our History of this Educational 
Order, we have one synoptical view of it in these twelve 

1 Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jesus, nouvelle edition, par 
Carlos Somraervogel S. J., Strasbourgeois, torn, i, from Abad to 
Boujart; large quarto edition, 1890. 

2 Doctrina Christiana, etc. ; Traductions ; Sommervogel, sub voce, 
Bellarmine, columns 1187-1204. 



136 LOYOLA. 

or thirteen thousand authors, all of one family. We 
have much more. This one work "attesting," as 
De Backer says in his preface, " at one and the same 
time a prodigious activity and often an indisputable 
merit," whereof three and a half centuries have been 
the course in time, and the whole world the place 
and theatre, is a general record of religion, letters, 
science, and education, in every country, civilized or 
barbarous, where the Society of Jesus labored and 
travelled. And where has it not done so ? In many 
parts of the world it was the first to occupy the 
field with literary men, who then sent communications 
to their superiors, or to learned societies, about the 
manners of different countries, the state of religion 
there,' of letters, science, and education, including re- 
ports of their own observations in geography, meteo- 
rology, botany, astronomy, mineralogy, etc. Original 
sources, from which later history in North, South, and 
Central America is drawing materials, are seen 
described here as they appeared ; so too with regard 
to Japan, China, Thibet, the Philippine Islands, Hin- 
dustan, Syria, as also to-day with respect to the na- 
tive tongues of the North American Indians. Here 
the record of published literature, described and 
catalogued according to date, marks the stages of 
mathematical and physical science, from the end 
of the sixteenth century onwards, and of magnetic 
and electrical researches all through last century ; 
as well as the relationship between the books of 
Jesuit authors and similar or kindred ones, by per- 
sons outside the Society, in different countries and of 
divers religions. 



SUBSEQUENT ADMINISTRATIONS. 137 

In short, works composed in most of the tongues of 
the world exhibit the chief periods in universal cul- 
ture, and the developments elaborated in the civiliza- 
tion of mankind.^ 

1 In the matter of general philology alone compare the mono- 
graph, Die Sprachkunde und die Missionen, von Joseph Dahlmann 
S. J., 15 January, 1891, fiftieth supplement to the Stimmen aus 
Maria-Laa«h, 121 pages. 



Part II. 
ANALYSIS OF THE SYSTEM OF STUDIES 



CHAPTEE X. 
AQUAVIVA. THE RATIO STUDIORUM. 

So centralized an Order as the Society of Jesus, 
which formed its Professors for every country, and 
sent them from one place to another, undertook, in 
doing so, to exhibit a definite system of education, of 
courses, of method. Besides such a unity of method, 
it professed also a consistent uniformity of doctrine. 

Before its time there was no one method which 
could be considered universal ; because there was no 
teaching body itself universal. The Order, as it 
branched out into the world, found a variety of sys- 
tems in vogue ; and the Jesuit Professors conformed, as 
best they could, to the local traditions of populations 
very diverse, in universities which were distinct and 
mutually independent. But, while they endeavored 
to better such systems, in accordance with the plan of 
their own Constitution, it was clear that they fell 
short of realizing the idea of their founder. Hence 
variations and dispensations were part of the usual 
order of the day. 

Yet there is a best way of doing everything ; and, 
not least, in education. In such a best way, some 
elements are essential at all times, while others are 
accidental, and vary with time, place, and circum- 
stance. The ideal system will preserve in its integ- 

141 



142 LOYOLA. 

rity all that is essential, and then will adapt the gen- 
eral principles with the closest adjustment to the par- 
ticular environment. 

Besides the unity of method desired, which I may de- 
fine to be the best ivay best adjusted to circumstance, there 
was need, as I have just said, of a consistent uniform- 
ity of doctrine; lest, in the same chair of philosophy, of 
divinity, or of science, or in chairs placed side by side, 
one Professor should say Yea to a question, and another 
Nay to the same question, with no more material a rea- 
son evident for the difference, save that one taught here 
and the other there, one spoke yesterday, the other 
speaks to-day. The educational effects, however, are 
far from being immaterial ; for, contradictory state- 
ments eliding one another, it is quite possible that 
the students understand less the next day than the 
day before. And, as to the Professors themselves, 
nothing can imperil more the harmony and efficiency 
of an educational organization, than disagreement of 
opinion in the function and act of teaching. In philos- 
ophy, the occasions for dispute spring off at every 
turn. Theology, as every one knows, is made to 
bristle with them. And, among men who are them- 
selves educated to the highest degree of mental cul- 
ture, interests and questions like these are far more 
absorbing than money, place, or power elsewhere. If 
anywhere ideas rule, it is among men of profound 
thought ; as the intense intellectuality of the mediaeval 
universities had shown, with all the consequences of 
unlimited vagaries in an unbridled scholasticism ; or, 
again, as the whole history of the intellectual Greek 
world had evidenced, whether in the early ages of the 



AQUAVIVA. THE RATIO STUDIORUM. 143 

Cliristian Church, or in the heathen generations be- 
fore. 

Whatever, then, a man may think privately, and be 
free to think, in matters of mere opinion, the genius 
of education imposes limits on the manner and matter 
of his actual teaching; and the speculations of a 
thinker, a writer, or an investigator, are not to be 
confounded with the best results of an educator, 
who, doing his work in the best way, is to effect a 
definite and immediate object. That object is noth- 
ing less than the equipping of fresh young spirits with 
principles of thought and habits of life, to enter 
fully ajDpointed on their respective paths of duty. In 
this view, therefore, definiteness of matter,. no less 
than unity of method, were required from the first for 
an effective system of education. 

During forty years, the individual enterprise of 
experienced and responsible men had been interpret- 
ing the values and measuring the results of existing 
methods. The Society itself had mounted into such 
a position, as practically to command the whole field 
of secular education. Its own system must have been 
excellent already. Nor could that system have been 
uniformly excellent, but for some uniformity which 
characterized it. Still the unity was defective. The 
Provinces were petitioning for an improvement. Evils 
obstructed the way to something better. For these 
reasons, the matter was taken in hand by one Gen- 
eral after another. And the final outcome of their 
work was a "Form,^' or "Method of Studies," Formula, 
or Ratio Studiorwn. 

On the nineteenth day of February, 1581, Father 



144 LOYOLA. 

Claudius Aquaviva was elected fifth General Superior 
of the Society. Taking up this educational project 
where his predecessors had left it, and, like them, 
availing himself of his almost boundless resources for 
obtaining information, he began by putting the work 
through every possible stage of consultation, to which 
the traditions of his office, and his own executive abil- 
ity prompted him ; and, when all prudent means had 
been exhausted in deliberating, he then used the exec- 
utive power which was vested in him ; and he required 
that what had been so laboriously designed, by the 
united efforts of many, should henceforth be reduced 
to practice, with the good will of all. 

It will be interesting to review briefly the process 
of elaboration. In the general assembly which 
elected Aquaviva, a committee of twelve Fathers from 
different countries was appointed to draw up a method 
of studies. How far their work proceeded does not 
appear. Three years later, in 1584, the General 
named a Commission of six, John Azor from Spain, 
Gaspar Gonzalez from Portugal, Peter Buys from 
Austria, Anthony Guisani from Upper Germany, 
Stephen Tucci of Rome, and James Tyre to represent 
France. This last-named Jesuit, a Scotchman, was 
not unknown in the lists of controversy to his coun- 
tryman, John Knox. They were all experienced in 
the administration of colleges, and versed in the sub- 
jects of all the faculties. Entering on their labors, 
they worked during six winter months in the Poeni- 
tentiaria of St. Peter's in Rome ; and, during the next 
three summer months, they resided in the Quirinal. 
The eyes of the chief authorities in the Catholic world 



AQUA VIVA. THE KATIO STUDIORUM. 146 

were turned in expectancy towards them. Indeed, 
some of the chief interests of Catholic Christendom 
seemed to depend upon them. 

They spent three hours a day in consultation. The 
rest of their time they devoted to consulting authors 
and conning over methods, in the three fields of 
letters, philosophy, and divinity. The documents 
which they studied are enumerated by themselves as 
being the minutes of previous deliberations held at 
Eome, or in the more prominent colleges of the Order ; 
the letters, consultations and laws of the universities, 
and other such documents, sent at different times up 
to that date from Italy, Spain, France, Germany, 
Poland ; the fourth part of the Constitution, as the 
standard of guidance ; the canons of the general assem- 
blies ; the rules and statutes of the schools ; moreover, 
the customs and regulations of the Koman College.^ 

After nine months of consecutive labor, they pre- 
sented the results to the General, in August, 1585. 
Father Aquaviva submitted the document for examina- 
tion to the Professors of the Roman College. Then 
he took the whole matter under his own personal con- 
sideration, with his four General Assistants, who rep- 
resented each a certain number of Provinces. At this 
stage, the report was printed, not as a rule determined 
on, but as the preliminary outline of a rule. The 
copies struck off were few, just enough for the use of 
the Provinces. The General's letter, which accom- 
panied the report, defined the precise stage at which 
the process was now understood to be.^ 

1 Monumenta Germaniae Paedagogica, vol. v, Pachtler, p. 29. 

2 Ibid., vol. V, p. 9 seq. 



146 LOYOLA. 

He says that, in a matter of such grave and univer- 
sal consequence, it was not his intention to prescribe 
anything, without first learning the opinions of the 
chief Doctors of the Society. Accordingly, he had 
been content with reading the results of the Commis- 
sion's labors, decreeing nothing, changing nothing, ex- 
cept so far as was necessary to put it in shape for 
distribution. He now required the Provincial Supe- 
riors, immediately upon receipt of the present letter, 
to select at least five men, who were the best qualified 
in point of learning and judgment, along with other 
members^ who were eminent in literature, and whom the 
Provincial might think fit to convoke. To these the 
report was to be submitted, for each to examine priv- 
ately, and with great care. On certain days, several 
times in the week, they were to meet and hold con- 
sultations ; to i)ut their conclusions in writing, as 
well with regard to the practical method of studies, 
as with regard to the speculative opinions which they 
favored ; they were to note whatever they thought 
should be added, or be made clearer, or otherwise reg- 
ulated, for the greater perfection of the work. If 
any of the Fathers, designated for this Provincial 
committee, could not possibly attend the meetings, 
still they were to send their opinions in writing to the 
Fathers actually in session ; so that full account might 
be taken of the public opinion in that Province. The 
criterion they were to follow, in making up their minds, 
was not so much their own private sentiment or their 
own leaning this way or that, as the general good of 
the whole Society, the practice of the universities 
and schools, and, in fine, the judgment of Doctors 



AQUA VIVA. THE RATIO STUDIORUM. 147 

most approved for their authority and solidity of 
doctrine. 

Aquaviva refers to the idea and intention of Igna- 
tius with respect to the present undertaking ; and he 
adds: "I would have all steadfastly keep this object 
in view, that they endeavor to find out reasons, not 
how a final decree may be prevented, as if the enter- 
prise were hard, and could not possibly be carried out 
(for we have made up our mind to carry it out, since 
it is necessary^ and is recommended by the Constitu- 
tion) ; but how the difficulties, if any such there be, 
may disappear, and the whole Order may combine in 
one and the same arrangement ; for otherwise the 
final result would only be the greater detriment of 
the Society." 

He calls their attention to an important point, in 
what is now styled Pedagogics, or the Science of Edu- 
cation. It is, that, in the form now sent out, the 
Fathers had taken pains to explain their reasons for 
arriving at conclusions. That would not be done in 
the System to be drawn up later, which would con- 
tain only the statement of directions for all to follow. 
In these words, we have a most important distinction 
laid down between the science which underlies the 
system of education, and the practical method itself 
which rests upon the science. The Ratio Studiorum, 
as subsequently promulgated, is a practical method. 
The science is sketched, as need arises, in the prelim- 
inary Ratio of 1586. 

At the same time, Father Aquaviva despatched 
another letter, about which he says, in a postscript to 
the foregoing, that the six points provisionally laid 



148 LOYOLA. 

down in it are to be subjected to tbe same examina- 
tion as the preliminary Ratio itself. 

In this supplementary epistle, he premises that it 
will require much time and consideration to issue the 
final code of rules ; and therefore, as a direction for 
the time being, he issues the following : — 

First, Professors shall adhere to St. Thomas Aqui- 
nas as their standard in theology. 

Secondly, they shall take care, in their manner of 
teaching, always to consolidate faith and piety. 

Thirdly, he lays down a principle of still wider 
application, and one which seems vital in the whole 
theory and practice of teaching : " Let no one defend 
any opinion which is judged by the generality of 
learned men to go against the received tenets of 
philosophers and theologians, or the common consent 
of theological schools." This touches a vital element 
in education. If we suppose that the teacher's art 
lies, not in giving forth the lucubrations of his own 
private thoughts and theories, but in imparting solid 
results, approved and ascertained, to those who come 
for such results, and wish to receive them in the most 
approved way, then the Professor in his chair ought 
not to mistake himself for the author in his study, 
nor should he practise on living men, whose life is all 
before them, what he might, with more propriety, 
first practise on the leisured world, and test elsewhere, 
either in the printed page, or in conference with his 
equals. The Professor, as such, is not the original 
investigator. In mathematics, he is notoriously not 
so. In that branch, the best teacher is the man who 
walks along a definite line, turns neither to the right 



AQUAVIVA. THE RATIO STUDIORUM. 149 

nor left, and finishes in a definite time; or else his 
scholars will never finish. To a certain degree, the 
same holds in all courses. If a man is theorizing, 
when he ought to be instructing, he goes off the line 
of perfect system, however much pains he takes with 
his matter ; just as much as if, taking no pains what- 
ever, he neglected his matter altogether, went behind 
it, or around it, gave histories of his branch, methods 
of teaching it, and descanted on pedagogics, to young 
people who were never sent to him for that purpose. 
They are sent to learn definite matter, and to be 
formed therein on a good plan, by the man who under- 
stands it. Then, as Loyola said in another connec- 
tion, " when they have experienced in themselves the 
effects thereof," they will be qualified for all the rest, 
for understanding the plan itself on which they have 
been formed, and enjoying all the practical results of 
it ; and, if their line of life invites, for understand- 
ing other plans too. This is practical wisdom in edu- 
cation ; neither dilettantism nor speculation. 

Fourthly, Aquaviva lays down a principle regard- 
ing the public advocacy of opinions. He is not 
referring to authorities denouncing, or Professors 
repudiating, them ; but merely to certain conditions 
for putting them forward: ^'If opinions, no matter 
whose they be, are found in a certain province or city 
to give offence to many Catholics, whether members 
of the Society or not, that is, persons not unqualified 
to judge, let no one teach them or defend them there, 
albeit the same doctrines may be taught elsewhere 
without offence." The Avord " defence," in a context 
like this, means publishing and sustaining theses 



150 LOYOLA. 

against all comers in public disputations ; wherein the 
Professor represents the school, and the school is put 
to the account of the Order. The principle seems 
discreet. If a corporate body does not want to be 
compromised, it is not for the member to compromise 
it. If he wants to use the perfect freedom of his 
opinions, and deliver himself of his own pronounce- 
ments, he ought first to assure himself that his circum- 
stances are such as to set him free from representing 
others. This is an elementary principle of social and 
urbane existence. 

The fifth point concerns the march of improvement 
in the advancement of opinions. It describes the 
method of discreet development : " In questions which 
have already been treated by others, let no one follow 
new opinions, or, in matters which in any way pertain 
to religion, or are of some consequence, let no one in- 
troduce new questions, without consulting the Prefect 
of Studies, or the Superior. If, then, it still remains 
dubious, whether the new opinion, or the new ques- 
tion, is permissible, it will be proper for the said 
authority, in order that things may proceed more 
smoothly, to learn the judgment of others in the 
Society upon the subject ; and then he will determine 
what appears best for the greater glory of God." In 
the sixth and last point, Aquaviva calls attention to a 
former decree, upon the manner of treating the Aris- 
totelian philosox^hy.^ 

So much for this letter of Aquaviva. On the sense 
and purport thereof he invited the communication of 
views from the Order at large, as well as on the docu- 
1 Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. v, p. 12 seq. 



AQUA VIVA. THE RATIO STUDIORUM. 161 

ment which he encloses, the preliminary Ratio Stu- 
diorum. To this we may now turn our attention. 

The six Fathers, who drew it up, state, in their in- 
troduction, that there are two mainstays and supports 
of the Society of Jesus, " an ardent pursuit of piety 
and an eminent degree of learning," ardens pietatis 
studium et proestans rerum scientia. If piety is not 
illumined with the light of learning, it can be, no 
doubt, of great use to the person who possesses it, but 
of scarcely any use in the service of the Church and 
of one's neighbor, in the administration of the Word 
and of the Sacraments, in the education of youth, in 
controversies with those who are hostile to the faith, 
in giving counsel, answering doubts, and in all other 
offices and functions, which are proper to men of the 
Order. All these call for an endowment of learning 
not common, but excelling in its degree. 

To acquire such learning, it is of supreme conse- 
quence that we set before ourselves what path we 
enter on, what arts we employ, and what means we 
use ; because, unless a ready and tried method be 
adopted, ratio facilis ac solers, much labor is spent in 
gathering but little fruit; whereas, if the labor of 
studies be guided by some sage rule, great results are 
compendiously obtained, at the cost of little research. 

Then the Commission goes on to say : " We have un- 
dertaken to teach, not only members of the Order, but 
youth from the world outside. The number of this 
latter class is vast ; it includes brilliant talent, and 
represents the nobility. We cannot imagine that we 
do justice to our functions, or come up to the expecta- 
tions formed of us, if we do not feed this multitude 



152 LOYOLA. 

of youths, in the same way as nurses do, with food 
dressed in the best way, for fear they grow up in our 
schools, without growing much in learning. An addi- 
tional spur is felt in the circumstance, that whatever 
concerns us is public and, day after day, is before the 
eyes of all, even of those who are not well disposed 
towards us." The Fathers consider it unnecessary to 
enlarge upon that harmony of views, so much com- 
mended in the Constitution, as to matters of public 
policy or teaching ; they say, " sufficient regard could 
not, up to this, be paid to such harmony ; for, when 
no common order or form was as yet prescribed, every 
one thought that he could hold what sentiments he 
liked, and teach them to others in the manner he him- 
self preferred ; so that sometimes the members of the 
Order disagreed as much among themselves, as with 
others outside." ^ 

After describing, in vivid terms, the manner in 
which they had conducted their deliberations, and 
arrived at conclusions, and how, when any keen dis- 
pute had arisen among them,^ they had divided and 
distinguished the disputed matter, and had examined 
it during two and even three days, till they came to 
settle at last on what all of them accepted, the critics 
come to the Practice and Order of Studies ; ^ and 
upon this they enlarge, in successive chapters, under 
the following heads : — 

The Sacred Scriptures. The Length of the Course 
in Divinity. The Means of finishing that Course in 
Four Years. The Method of Lecturing. The Ques- 

1 Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. v, p. 26 seq. 

2 Disputatio acris oriebatur. 3 ibid., Nr. 8, p. 65. 



AQUA VIVA. THE EATIO STUDIORUM. 163 

tions which are either not to be treated by the Theo- 
logical Professors, or are to be treated only at a Certain 
Part of the Course. Repetitions. Disputations. The 
Choice, Censorship, and Correcting of Opinions. The 
Private Studies of Students. Vacations. The Degrees 
of Bachelor, Master, Doctor. Controversial Theology. 
Moral Theology. Hebrew. The Study of Philoso- 
phy, which includes Physics. Mathematics. Litera- 
ture, that is. Grammar, History, Poetry, Rhetoric. 
Seminaries for Literature and the Higher Faculties. 
The Professors of Literature. The Grammar to be 
used. Greek. Different Exercises in the Classics. 
Incitements to Study. The Method of Promotion. 
Books. Vacations in the Lower Classes. Order and 
Piety. The Respective Objects and Exercises of the 
Classes of Grammar and Humanity. The Class of 
Humanity. The Class of Rhetoric. General Distri- 
bution of Time during the Year. 

These are the matters handled in the publication of 
1586. In the course of treatment, this document con- 
tains, by way of a running commentary, the complete 
theory of Education, or Science of Pedagogics, as un- 
derstood by these critics. It will not be possible, 
within the brief limits of this work, to give more 
than a bare sketch of the pedagogical elements con- 
tained in the one hundred and fifty pages of the 
Monumenta Germanioe. Pcedagogica} 

A second, partial edition of this preliminary Ratio 
was sent out by Father Aquaviva, in 1591, to which an 
entertaining bibliographical history is attached.^ In 

1 Vol. V, pp. 67-217. 

2 Monumeuta Germauiae Paedagogica, vol. v, p. 15 seq. 



154 LOYOLA. 

1593, the fifth, general assembly of the Order met, 
Claudius Aquaviva presiding. By this time, during 
the interval of seven years which had elapsed since 
the first edition, the book had been subjected to exam- 
ination in all the Provinces ; observations and criti- 
cisms had been returned ; it had been re-committed to 
the Fathers at Eome, and revised by the General with 
his Assistants ; and had again been sent out for trial. 
The Provincials and Deputies, meeting in 1593, brought 
with them the reports of how the system worked. Its 
slightest defects were noted. ^ Most asked for an 
abridged form. 

Amid the very grave questions then pending, the 
assembly took some action on the Ratio. It was re- 
committed once more to the competent authorities for 
revision. And it assumed its last and definite form, 
in what was probably its ninth edition. This last 
issue, in the year 1599, after fifteen years spent on the 
elaboration of it, is the EATIO STUDIORUM. 

One hundred and twenty-seven years later, the 
great old University of Paris seems to have become 
a disciple of its educational rival, the Society of 
Jesus. Querard observes that the Eector, Rollin, 
'' without saying anything about it, translated the 
Ratio for his Traite des Etudes." ^ Indeed, as M. Breal, 
historian of that University, observes, referring to the 

1 As an instance of the minute criticism brought to bear upon it 
in Germany, consult Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica. vol. v, p. 
218 seq. Similar animadversions are to be understood as coming 
from other quarters. 

^ Supercheries litteraires devoilees iii, 446, f ; Sommervogel, Dic- 
tionnaire des Ouvrages Anonymes et Pseudonymes, etc., S. J., sub 
voce. Ratio. 



AQUAVIVA. THE RATIO STUDIORUM. 155 

suppression of the Order : " Once delivered from the 
Jesuits, the University installed itself in their houses, 
and continued their manner of teaching." ^ 

In all general works on education, there is ques- 
tion of this System. Its form is that of a practical 
method, without reasons being assigned, or arguments 
urged. It is a legislative document, which superseded 
all previous forms. The General's letter, which ac- 
companied it, ordered the suppression of them all, 
promulgating this one to the exclusion of the rest. 

The sentiment, to which the last words of this 
letter gives expression as a fond hope, was fully re- 
sponded to by the course of events, in the one hun- 
dred and seventy-four years which were to elapse 
before the general suppression of the Order : " It is 
believed," he said, " that it will bring forth abundant 
fruit, for the benefit of our scholars," Quae nostris 
auditoribus uberes fructus allatura creditur. Aquaviva's 
letter is dated the eighth day of January, 1599.^ 

1 Quoted by Ch. Daniel, S. J., Les Jesuites Instituteurs de la Jeu- 
nesse, etc., last ch. p. 297. 

2 Monumenta Gerinaniaj Paedagogica, vol. v, Nr. 11, p. 227. 



CHAPTER XI. 

FORMATION OF THE MASTER. HIS COURSES OF LIT- 
ERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY. 

It seems an apt distribution of our subject, to 
consider, first, the formation of the Master, and 
secondly, the formation of the Scholar. The Master's 
development will conduct us chiefly through the 
higher studies ; the Scholar's, rather through the 
lower. Thus the two persons, about whom the science 
of education revolves, will be directly under inspec- 
tion ; while the elements which go to form them will, 
at the same time, pass under review. 

Without theorizing on pedagogy, the Jesuit system 
itself, merely as observed and realized, results in the 
formation of Professors. There are several reasons, 
apparent on the surface, why it should do so. The 
studies, which the members of the Order pursue, are 
the same courses as the Order professes for the world 
at large. But, for the Jesuit members of the divers 
courses, a most elaborate system of examinations at 
every stage, with a specially searching manner of 
testing the students, is made to regard one objective 
point, which is the capacity of the Jesuit to teach 
what he has learnt, and this, as evinced, while under 
examination. The manner, in which this point is 
judicially determined, consists in referring the ex- 
166 



FOEMATION OF THE MASTER. 157 

aminers to a standard, called "mediocrity.'' After a 
personal and oral disputation with the young Jesuit, 
lasting either half an hour, or one hour, or two consec- 
utive hours, according to the stage at which he 
happens to be, a preponderating vote of the four or 
five examining Professors must aver that he has 
" surpassed mediocrity." The learning, prudence, and 
sincerity of the examiners are appealed to without 
further sanction, except at the very last stage in the 
young man's progress, when success under the ordeal 
will entitle him to Profession in the Society. Then 
each examiner's prudence is stimulated, and his sin- 
cerity bound down, by an oath. Only at one initial 
stage, that of the first examination in the course of 
his three years' Philosophy, is a certain margin allowed 
the beginner, in favor of bare mediocrity. 

" Mediocrity " is defined to be that degree of intel- 
ligence, and comprehension of the matters studied, 
which can give an account of them to one asking an 
explanation. " To surpass mediocrity " designates 
the student's ability to defend his entire ground 
with such erudition and facility as show him quali- 
fied, in point of actual attainments, to profess the 
philosophy or theology studied. The final degree in 
the Order, which is that of Profession, requires this 
competency for all Philosophy and Theology together. 
Here then we see, that the capacity to teach is made 
the criterion of having learned sufficiently well. 
Passing through all the grades with this mark of ex- 
cellence, the man who, after a general formation of 
seventeen years, and the requisite development of 
other qualifications, is then appointed to profess in a 



158 LOYOLA. 

chair of the higher faculties, has been very much to 
the manner born of " surpassing mediocrity/' and of 
doing, so with the characteristics of a Professor.^ How 
the same principles, if not in the same form, affect the 
conduct of the literary curriculum, we shall now see 
in the rest of this chapter. 

The literary curriculum has been already finished 
by the Jesuit, before entering the Order. But, after 
his admission, special means are taken to have him 
revise those studies, extend them, and grasp them from 
the standpoint of the teacher. It happens in Jesuit 
history, and the nature of secondary education will 
always have it so, that the largest amount of teaching 
has been done in the arena of these literary courses. 
And it was no small part of the general revival of 
studies, effected by Ignatius of Loyola, that justice 
was done to literature, as well by students who were 
to enter on philosophical or scientific courses,^ as by 
those who contemplated embarking on life in the world. 
We noticed, on a former occasion, the reasoning of Aqua- 
viva with respect to this policy.^ The literary courses in 
question are those of Grammar, Humanities, and Eheto- 
ric, which fill from five to seven years. The Fathers of 
1586 urge the importance of these studies for the 
English and German students in Rome, as if special 
difficulties were experienced with them.* 

1 Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. v, p. 252, Ratio Stu- 
dioruin of 1599, Reg. Pro v. 19, § 11. 

2 Compare Lord Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, book ii, 
p. 186, 1st column ; Philadelphia edit. 1846. 

s Chapter vi, above, p. 83. 

4 Monumenta Germanise Psedagogica, vol. v, p. 129, Ratio Studi- 
orum of 1586, c. Stud. Philos. 



FORMATION OF THE MASTER. 159 

If we inquire what were the results of the stringent 
regulations adopted to enforce this policy, and what 
degree of proficiency was attained in the Jesuit 
courses of Belles-Lettres and eloquence, we have only 
to consult the concordant testimony of history upon the 
" handsome style " and literary finish of the scholars. 
An interesting answer, from a domestic point of view, 
is casually afforded us by a remark, which the Fathers 
of Upper Germany make, when in 1602 they send to 
Aquaviva some animadversions of theirs upon the 
Ratio. They say that students in the class of 
Rhetoric might deliver their own orations, " since there 
are generally found in that class, particularly among 
those of the second year, young men who often sur- 
pass even their own Professors in genius, and in the 
variety and fluency of their language." ^ 

The bearing of all this is obvious, in determining 
the grade of those students who ask for admission 
into the Order. It is after a full gymnasium course 
of this kind, that the life of the Jesuit is to begin. 
And these are the studies which he will have to pos- 
sess after the manner of a teacher. He will review 
them as soon as his two years of novitiate are over. 

Those years of novitiate are blank, under the aspect 
of secular pursuits. But, in other respects, being a 
time for reflection and for internal application to the 
affairs of his mind and heart, they are worth a long 
season in the process of developing character, by 
habits of assiduous labor, of acquiring a taste for re- 
tirement and virtue, and practising the spirit of docility 
to counsel. Indeed, on issuing from this period of 
1 Monumenta Germanise Psedagogica, vol. v, p. 491, n. 32. 



160 LOYOLA. 

intense application to the knowledge of self, the 
young religious student is already started on his 
career of knowing men, and dealing successfully with 
human characters. Henceforth, ecclesiastical knowl- 
edge and other acquirements will be proper to his 
state, as a Eeligious ; but, for the special vocation of 
the Society of Jesus, he returns to secular studies. 

In view of his approaching " regency," or Professor- 
ship in the curriculum of letters, the critics of 1586 
give this advice : " It would be most profitable for the 
schools, if those who are about to be Preceptors were 
privately taken in hand by some one of great expe- 
rience ; and, for two months or more, were practised 
by him in the method of reading, teaching, correcting, 
writing, and managing a class. If teachers have not 
learnt these things beforehand, they are forced to 
learn them afterwards at the expense of their scholars ; 
and then they will acquire proficiency only when 
they have already lost in reputation ; and perchance 
they will never unlearn a bad habit. Sometimes, such 
a habit is neither very serious nor incorrigible, if 
taken at the beginning; but, if the habit is not cor- 
rected then, it comes to pass that a man, who other- 
wise would have been most useful, becomes well-nigh 
useless. There is no describing how much amiss Pre- 
ceptors take it, if they are corrected, when they have 
already adopted a fixed method of teaching; and what 
continual disagreement ensues on that score with the 
Prefects of Studies. To obviate this evil, in the case 
of our Professors, let the Prefect in the chief College, 
whence our Professors of Humanities and Grammar 
are usually taken, remind the Rector and Provincial, 



FORMATION OF THE MASTER. 161 

about three months before the next scholastic year 
begins, that, if the Province needs new Professors for 
the following term, they should select some one emi- 
nently versed in the art of managing classes, whether 
he be, at the time, actually a Professor, or a student of 
Theology or Philosophy ; and to him the future Mas- 
ters are to go daily for an hour, to be prepared by him 
for their new ministry, giving prelections in turn, 
writing, dictating, correcting, and discharging the other 
duties of a good teacher." ^ 

This advice was in keeping with an ordinance of 
the second general assembly, held in 1565, nine years 
after the death of Ignatius. It had been resolved, 
that at least one perfect Seminary of the Society 
should be established in each Province for the forma- 
tion of Professors and others, who would be com- 
petent workmen in the vineyard of Christ, in the 
department of Humane Letters, Philosophy, and Theol- 
ogy, so as to suffice for the needs of the whole Prov- 
ince. This was to be done as soon as convenient in 
each Province. 

Henceforward, it became a matter of general observ- 
ance that all should have spent "at least two years 
in the school of eloquence," besides repeating gram- 
mar, if that were necessary.^ "And if any are so 
gifted as to promise great success in these pursuits, 
it will be worth while seeing whether they should not 
spend three years in them, to lay a more solid founda- 

1 Monumenta Germaniae Pfedagogica, vol. v, p. 154, n. 6 ; Humani- 
tatis Doctores quos et quales, etc. 

2 Vitelleschi, 1639, Monumenta Germaniae Paedagogica, vol. ix, p. 
60, n. 4. 



162 LOYOLA. 

tion." ^ To such a solid foundation in Humane Let- 
ters corresponds a special privilege in the crowning of 
a member's formation, inasmuch as the Society admits 
to Profession one who is altogether eminent in litera- 
ture, even though in Theology he may not have sur- 
passed mediocrity ; a privilege which was extended to 
great proficiency in the Indian and Oriental languages, 
as also to a marked excellence in Greek and Hebrew.^ 

Examining more in detail this literary formation, 
we may take up the programme for the seminary of 
the junior members, as drafted by Jouvancy. He drew 
it up in pursuance of a decree to that effect, passed 
a hundred years later, by the general assembly of 
1696. This decree required that, " besides the rules, 
whereby the Masters of Literature are directed in the 
manner of teaching, they should be provided with an 
Instruction and Method of learning properly, and so 
be guided in their private studies even while they are 
actually teaching." ^ The method in question is out- 
lined in the first part of Jouvancy's little book, enti- 
tled Ratio Discendi et DocencU, " The art of Learning 
and of Teaching." A cursory glance at this part shows 
that, while addressing Masters on the subject of their 
own private studies, his directions bear chiefly upon 
their efficiency as teachers. 

Jouvancy divides his subject into three chapters : 
first, the knowledge and use of languages ; secondly, 
the possession of sciences ; thirdly, some aids to study. 

1 Ratio Stud., Reg. Prov. 19; Monumenta Germaniae Paedagogica, 
vol. V, p. 242. 

'■^ Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. ii, pp. 84, 93. 
3 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 101. 



FORMATION OF THE MASTER. 163 

As to languages, they are three in number : Greek, 
Latin, and the native tongue. Laying down some 
principles on style in general, he says : " If a correct 
understanding, according to Horace, be the first prin- 
ciple and source of writing well, it follows that style, 
which is nothing else than a certain manner of writ- 
ing, has two parts; first, the intelligent thought or 
sentiment, properly conceived; secondl}^, the expres- 
sion of the same ; so that, as man himself is made up 
of soul and body, all style likewise consists of the 
underlying thought and the manner of its expression." 
Thought must be true, perspicuous, and adapted to the 
subject. To think truly or justly of things, there is 
required mental power and insight, which distin- 
guishes what is really the gist of a subject-matter 
from what is only a deceptive appearance, or is super- 
ficial. Assistance is to be had for all this from the 
reading of good books, from accurate reflection and 
protracted thought, w^hich does not merely skim over 
the subject, or touch it in a desultory way ; again, 
from the analysis of parts, causes, adjuncts ; finally, 
from the prudent judgment of others, or what is called 
criticism. As to the ways of acquiring proper dic- 
tion, Jouvancy says : " I would have you avail your- 
self of books which treat of this matter, not so as 
to imagine all is done by thumbing them ; you will 
gain much more by the plentiful reading of the best 
writers"; and again, "'abundance of diction,' copia 
verhorum, will be easily acquired by reading much." 
It is by reading, writing, and imitating the best 
authors that a good style is formed; and only the 
best authors are to be read, " lest the odor of a for- 



164 LOYOLA. 

eigu and vicious stj'le cling to the mind, as to new 
vases." 

Coming to treat of one's native tongue, Jouvancy 
lays down these points : " The study of the vernacular 
consists chiefly in three things. First, since the 
Latin authors are explained to the boys, and are ren- 
dered into the mother-tongue, the version so made 
should be as elegant as possible. Wherefore, let the 
master elaborate his version for himself, or, if he 
draws on any writer in the vernacular, let him com- 
pare first the Latin text with the version before him ; 
thus he will find it easy to perceive what is pecul- 
iar to either tongue, and what is the respective force 
and beauty of each. The same method is to be ob- 
served in explaining and translating histories in the 
lower classes. Secondly, all the drafts of compositions, 
which are dictated in the vernacular, must be in ac- 
cord with the most exact rules of the mother-tongue, 
free from every defect of style. [Thirdly,] it will be 
of use to bring up and discuss, from time to time, 
whatever has been noticed in the course of one's read- 
ing, and whatever others have observed regarding the 
vicious and excellent qualities of speech. The younger 
Master should be on his guard against indulging too 
much in the reading of vernacular authors, especially 
the poets, to the loss of time, and perhaps to the 
prejudice of virtue." 

The interest here manifested in the vicious and 
excellent qualities of the mother-tongue was a contri- 
bution of the schools to the development of modern 
languages. Nor was the severity, which is here pre- 
scribed, with reference to the use of poetry, a barrier 



FORMATION OF THE MASTER. 165 

to the formation of some good poets among the Jes- 
uits themselves. Friedrich von Spee is considered a 
distinguished lyric poet of the seventeenth century. 
Denis, as the translator of Ossian into German, helped 
to inaugurate the later period of German literature. 
In Italian prose, Bartoli, Segneri, Pallavicini, have 
ranked as classics ; Tiraboschi, as the historian of 
literature ; Bresciani, in our days, as the popular nove- 
list. As writers of French prose, Bourdaloue and 
Bouhours appertain to the choicest circle of Louis 
XIV's golden age ; Du Cygne, Brumoy, Tournemine, 
besides others already mentioned in these pages, took 
their place as literary critics. And, in their several 
national literatures, Cahours, ^lartin, Garucci, have 
attained their literary eminence as art-critics. 

Reverting to solidity of thought as the basis of 
style, Jouvancy eliminates the false ornaments of a 
subtle and abrupt style, by reducing the conceptions 
to a dialectical analysis : " What does the thing 
mean ? " And he gives examples. 

In the second chapter of the same part, the Ars 
Discendi, he comes to the acquisition of those sciences, 
which are proper to a Master of Literature. He says : 
" The erudition of a religious master is not confined to 
mere command of languages, whereof we have spoken 
heretofore ; it must rise higher to the understanding 
of some sciences, which it is usual to impart to youth. 
Such are Ehetoric, Poetry, History, Chronology, Geog- 
raphy, and Philology or Polymathy, which last is not 
so much a single science as a series of erudite attain- 
ments, whereof an accomplished person should at 
least have tasted." History he divides into Sacred, 



166 LOYOLA. 

Universal, and Parcicular. " As to the histories of 
particular nations, writers of the respective nationali- 
ties record them ; " " and if you do not add Chronology 
to History, you take out one of History's eyes." For 
Geography, he designates the books and maps which 
were then to be had. And, for all the branches, he 
indicates standard authors. 

Now, in this little rhetorical sketch of Jouvancy's, 
we may take note of two features, one pedagogical, 
the other historical. The distinctively pedagogical cast 
is put upon these private studies, in as much as they 
are magisterial, being pursued with express reference 
to the Master's chair. The historical feature, to be 
noted here, is common to the Jesuit educational lit- 
erature in general ; which, in its many departments, 
marked several epochs and, as a whole, made an era 
in education. 

Thus, at the time of the Ratio Studiorum, there 
were indeed several guides of the very first rank, in 
the path of a literary formation. They were three in 
number, Cicero, Quintilian, and Aristotle. From these 
the Professor of Ehetoric had to derive his matter and 
make clear his method. The Ratio names them as 
his text-books for the Precepts.^ From these sources 
the literary activity and experience of many genera- 
tions of Professors, in several hundred colleges of the 
Order, tended to mark out the best line to follow, 
for the attainment of literary perfection. The liter- 
ary course, in which they themselves were proximately 
formed for the duties of teaching, served but to organ- 

1 Rt. St. 1599, Reg. Prof, Rhet. 6; Monumenta Germauiaj Paeda- 
gogica, vol. V, p. 404. 



FORMATION OF THE MASTER. 167 

ize the matter, and to digest it. The numberless 
pedagogical text-books, issued before Jouvancy, and 
after him, exhibit the progress of the movement dur- 
ing the several centuries. And, at present, the sys- 
tem may be seen in its most developed form, if one 
consults the newest guides, like Father Kleutgen's 
Ars Dicendi, or Father Broeckaert's Le Guide du 
Jeune Litterateur. But, long before our day, the 
most ordinary systems of literary instruction have 
embodied the method ; and the commonest text-books 
have it. 

A similar epoch was made, as early as 1572, by the 
Grammar of Father Emmanuel Alvarez, De Institutione 
Grammatica Libri Tres, a work adopted by the Ratio, 
then republished in editions so numerous as to baffle 
all calculation, translated either entire, or in part, into 
thirteen languages ; while one portion, well-known in 
our times as a " Latin Prosody," is credited to divers 
authors or publishers.^ The latest editions of this 
Grammar, issued in different languages, are of the 
last twenty -five years. This era of development in 
grammar superseded the subtleties and metaphysical 
abstractions of mediaeval methods.^ 

In history, not to mention the voluminous James 
Sirmond, whose researches among original sources 
were made before the sixteenth century had closed. 
Father Denis Petau (Petavius), early in the following 
century, composed his great work on Chronology, lay- 

1 Sommervogel fills twenty-four columns with a partial enumera- 
tion of the editions of Alvarez; Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de 
Jesus, 1890, sub coce, Alvarez. 

2 Compare Monumenta Germauiae Psedagogica, vol. ii, p. 269, n. 
114 ; Manare's Ordinance for Germany. 



168 LOYOLA. 

ing down the exact basis in this respect for Universal 
History, both sacred and profane.^ Geneva and Hol- 
land alike reproduced the work. Labbe's publications 
on ancient and modern History and Chronology, the 
greater part of his eighty works being upon these 
subjects, with several abridgments and geographical 
adjuncts ; Father Bufher's " Practical History," which 
was published for the schools in 1701, and then rapidly 
went through divers editions, to be supplemented in 
1715 by his " Universal Geography," his treatise on the 
Globe and his Maps, all of which went through some 
scores of French, Italian and Dutch editions ; these 
and other works of the kind indicate the line of 
pedagogical development going on at the same time 
in the various colleges. Hence, the ^' New Elements 
of History and Geography for the use of the Scholars 
of the College Louis-le-Grand," which was an abridg- 
ment of Buffier's book, could say, with some propriety, 
on its first page : " How great has been the careless- 
ness of an age, otherwise so judicious and cultivated 
as ours, in not having as yet made the science of 
History and Geography an essential part of the educa- 
tion of youth ? The public and posterity will per- 
haps be grateful to the College of Louis-le-Grand, for 
having shown in this regard an example, which ought 
to do honor to our time." ^ Thus the same resources 
were at the service of Jesuit education as, in the gen- 
eral literary world, helped to form the Jesuit historians : 
Mariana, historian of Spain; Damian Strada, of the 
War in the Netherlands ; Balbin, of Bohemia ; Narus- 

1 Rationarium Temporum, Paris, 1632. 

2 Daniel, Les Jesuites Instituteurs, etc., ch. 10, p. 216. 



FORMATION OF THE MASTER. 169 

zewicz, of Poland ; Katona, of the Kings of Hun- 
gary ; Damberger, of the Middle Ages ; Francis 
Wagner, of Leopold I ; G. Daniel, historiographer 
royal of France. 

Geography is not to be separated from History. 
Up to the end of the sixteenth century, Ptolemy's 
Geography, corrected, modified, altered, according to 
the reports of navigators, had been the scientific 
standard, but uncertain, vacillating, and self-contra- 
dictory. From the earlier part of the seventeenth 
century, the astronomical observations, sent from the 
far East by the Jesuit missionaries, emphasized the 
need of a general reform, already sufficiently evident. 
Father Eiccioli, assisted by Father Grimaldi, who is 
known in science as one of the precursors of Newton, 
undertook, in his GeograpJiia lieformata, the reform 
of Geography by means of Astronomy.^ For this 
purpose, he created first his own metrology, identify- 
ing, and reducing to a common denomination, all the 
measures received in reports from different parts of 
the earth. The first eclipse of the moon which he 
makes mention of, among his astronomical reports, 
had been observed on the night of November 8, 1612, 
by Father Scheiner at Ingolstadt and by Father 
Charles Spinola at Nangasaki in Japan. At the 
time that Eiccioli was writing, the Jesuit mission- 
aries had multiplied in China. Adam Schall died 
in 1666, holding the post of President of the Mathe- 
matical Tribunal at Pekin ; he was followed by Fer- 
dinand Verbiest ; and then a long line of imperial 

1 Geographiae et Hydrographiae Reformatae Libri xii, Bologna, 
1661, in folio. 



170 LOYOLA. 

astronomers of the Celestial Empire, Koegler, Haller- 
stein, Seixas, Francesco, De Eocha, Espinha, con- 
tinued to send their reports, either to the colleges of 
their respective Provinces, or to other mathematical 
centres, or to the learned societies in Europe, Avhereof 
not a few Jesuits were members. Meanwhile, scien- 
tific returns from Hindustan, Siam, Thibet, on one 
side of the globe, and from San Domingo on the other 
side, poured into the College Louis-le-Grand, and 
made of this educational centre an indispensable 
auxiliary to the Bureau of Longitudes. All this, re- 
acting on education, was received with satisfaction by 
the general world, and drew the pedagogic bodies 
steadily, though with some difficulty, on the line of 
progress. The University of Paris was quite tardy 
in following up the steps of the Jesuits.^ 

As to Mathematics in education, it is evident that 
a similar process of development must have been the 
history of this branch, with the limitation however, 
that mathematical science has not been so nearly 
created anew within these last centuries, as some 
other departments. Father Christopher Clavius, " the 
Euclid of his time," was engaged by Gregory XIII in 
reforming the Calendar, the same which we use to-day ; 
he died in 1612. His death intervening, while his 
complete works were being republished, Father Zieg- 
ler superintended the neiv edition, till it was finished 
in five tomes. Francis Coster, at Cologne, Hurtado 
Perez, at Ingolstadt, Henry Garnet, an Englishman, 

1 See the pleasant sketch in Daniel's Les Je'suites Instituteurs, etc., 
chs. 2-5 ; also Maynard's The Jesuits, their Studies and Teaching, 
ch. i, Scientific Condition of the Jesuits, etc. 



FORMATION OF THE MASTER. 171 

and G-rienberger, successor of Clavius, both at Eome, 
belonged, with other mathematicans of the Order, to 
the sixteenth century. The writers of the prelimi- 
nary Ratio, 1586, require that, in a brief course of 
Mathematics, " Euclid's Elements " " be seasoned al- 
w^ays with some application to Geography or the 
Sphere '' ; then, in the following year, the rest of 
Father Clavius' " Epitome of Practical Arithmetic " ^ is 
to be finished ; - and special courses are provided for 
members of the Order, who give promise of eminence.-'^ 
Indeed, whether as Professors of officers for the 
army and navy, or as constructing and directing ob- 
servatories, the members pursued everj^ branch of 
Mathematics, pure and applied. Father L'Hoste's 
'' Treatise on Xaval Evolutions" was used in the French 
navy, as " the Book of the Jesuit." * Of this book 
the Count de Maistre writes quaintly in 1820 : " An 
English Admiral assured me less than ten years ago, 
that he had received his first instructions in the 'Book 
of the Jesuit.' If events are taken for results, there 
is not a better book in the world ! " ^ Eximeno, at the 
school of Segovia, instructed young nobles in Mathe- 
matics and the science of Artillery. And so, in gen- 
eral, courses were provided, according as the needs of 
respective localities required. The Kepublic of Venice 
struck a gold medal in honor of Vincent Eiccolati, the 
Jesuit engineer, just as the King of Denmark honors 
De Vico, the astronomer, with a gold medal struck in 

1 Rome, 1583, 8vo, pp. 219. 

2 Monumenta Germaniae Psedagogica, vol. v, p. 141, De Mathe- 
maticis. 3 Reg. Prov. n. 20. ^ Y\vs,i edition in 1697. 

5 De r:6glise Gallicane, lir. 1, ch. 8, p. 46 ; edit. 1821. 



172 LOYOLA. 

his honor, and having the words inscribed, " Comet 
Seen, Jan. 24, 1846." ^ 

Kircher, Boscovich, Pianciani, Secchi, Perry, hon- 
ored with the fellowship of so many learned and 
scientific Academies, and exercising a distinct influ- 
ence to-day, either by the far-reaching effects of their 
researches, or by their actual contact with science, may 
be looked upon as belonging to our most recent times.^ 

It is remarked that to the Order was due the mul- 
tiplication of observatories, in the middle of last cen- 
tury. Pather Huberti superintended the building of 
an observatory at Wiirzburg ; Father Maximilian Hell, 
the court astronomer, built one at Vienna. At Man- 
heim, a third was erected by Mayer and Metzger; 
at Tyrnau, one by Keri ; at Prague, another by Step- 
pling ; one at the Jesuit College of Gratz ; similarly 
at Wilna, Milan, Florence, Parma, Venice, Brescia, 
Eome, Lisbon, Marseilles, Bonfa. In short, Montucla 
remarks: "In Germany and the neighboring coun- 
tries, there were few Jesuit colleges without an observ- 
atory. They were to be found at Ingolstadt, Gratz, 
Breslau, Olmiitz, Prague, Posen, etc. Most of them 
seem to have shared the fate of the Society ; though 
there are a few which survive the general destruc- 
tion." 3 

1 The medal is in the Coleman Museum of the Georgetown Uni- 
versity, where De Vico, with Sestiui, was astronomer for some time. 

2 For an historical sketch of Bavarian Jesuits, under the aspect 
of scientific eminence, see Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. 
ix, pp. 445-6, where Father Pachtler gives the Prospectus of a new 
scientific and literary review, to be issued in Bavaria, 1772. The 
Suppression forestalled it. 

3 Histoire des Mathematiques, t. iv, p. 347; quoted by Cretineau- 
Joly, t. iv, c. 4, p. 283, who contains a large amount of literature 



FORMATION OF THE MASTER. 173 

These few indications go to illustrate the pedagogi- 
cal epochs made by the system of the Order. And 
the young member, who is being formed to contribute 
his own share towards carrying on the education of 
the world, passes all these branches under review. 
One of them, Mathematics, is conducted outside of 
the ]3hilological seminary, which we have so far been 
considering; it is left for his course of Philosophy, 
which he will pursue during three years, before actu- 
ally embarking on the life of the class-room, or his 
^'regency." We may now suppose that the time has 
arrived for his entering the class-room, as a Master 
of Grammar and Elementary Literature. 

When he does so, he has possessed himself, in that 
philosophical triennium, of positive intellectual attain- 
ments, neither meagre nor common. He has surveyed 
the whole field of natural thought and investigation, 
in the various branches, mental, physical, and ethical. 
To enumerate them, there is Logic, including dialec- 
tics, and the criteria, objective and subjective, of truth ; 
Ontology, or general metaphysics ; Special Metaphys- 
ics, in its three divisions : — Cosmology, which imme- 
diately underlies physics, chemistry, and biology ; 
Psychology, which underlies all the anthropological 
sciences about the human compound, its principles, 
and the formation of its ideas ; Natural Theology. 

upon this subject. According to late researches, made by MM. C. 
Andre and G. Rayet, astronomers of the observatory of Paris, the 
number of observatories established in the whole world, towards 
the close of the last century, was 130. Of this number, 32 were 
founded by Jesuits, or were under their direction. — Victor Van 
Tricht, La Bibliotheque des Ecrivains de la Compagnie de Jesus, 
etc., appendice l^r, p. 221; 1876. 



174 LOYOLA. 

All this is tlieoretic or speculative philosophy. There 
is besides the science of moral life, which comprises 
Ethics, Natural Kight, and Social Eight. Concurrent 
with Philosophy, there has been a double course of 
Physics and Chemistry, during one year, with a course 
of higher Mathematics, varying from one year to 
three ; as well as a half-year's course of Geology, As- 
tronomy, and some other subsidiary matters. This is 
the general formation. The principle which guides 
individual cases was laid down by Ignatius in these 
terms : '' In the superior faculties, on account of the 
great inequality of talents and age and other consid- 
erations, the Eector of the University will consider 
how much in each line individuals shall learn, and 
how long they shall stay in the courses ; although it 
is better for those who are of the proper age, and who 
have the requisite facility in point of talent, that 
they should endeavor to advance and become conspicu- 
ous in all." ^ During all this course of higher natural 
sciences, some attention has still been paid to acces- 
sories ; literature has not been entirely neglected ; 
oratory has been practised, and poems presented on 
stated occasions. And then the new Master is intro- 
duced into his course of " regency." 

1 Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 13, u. 4. 



CHAPTER XII. 

YOUTHFUL MASTERS. 

Whex Ignatius of Lo3'ola was governing the Society, 
the multiplicity of affairs which he had to administer, 
and the absorption of mind which they demanded, did 
not prevent him from devoting to every minute ele- 
ment the attention which it specially invited. Hence 
he required the young Scholastics, who were review- 
ing their literary studies at Valencia, to send him 
their orations and a poem. So, too, with the Masters 
of the lower classes at Messina, in Sicily. This college 
had opened with the higher courses of letters ; but the 
very next year such numerous throngs of younger 
boys came asking for admission, that the system, 
begun with Rhetoric and Humanities, was carried 
down to meet their needs ; and the entire course was 
distributed into five grades. Ignatius required the 
teachers of these lower grades, no less than those of 
the higher, to write each week, and send him an ac- 
count of the affairs of his class. ^ 

It is indeed an eventful moment, when a man be- 
comes a teacher of others. They may be boys. But, 
whether they are boys merely blossoming into life, or 
youths on the verge of manhood, the teacher of them 
has to be a teacher of men; and perhaps more so 

1 Bollandists, J. P., n. 871. 

175 



170 LOYOLA. 

with the boy than with the man, inasmuch as his con- 
trol of the younger student has to be so much the 
more complete. It is not merely such a control as 
will address the intellects of men mature, whose char- 
acters are already far advanced in the way of forma- 
tion, or are perhaps fixed for life ; but it must be such 
as will form a whole human nature, which is still 
pliable and docile. 

As an almost universal rule, the Jesuit Scholastic, 
after his course of Philosophy, takes his place in a 
college to teach Grammar or Literature. If it be 
asked, why should this be an almost universal rule, 
several reasons are at hand. In the first place, the 
candidate for admission into the Order has been ac- 
cepted with special reference to this work. If this 
reference was expressly overlooked, the candidate so 
admitted is in an exceptional category. In the sec- 
ond place, the whole tenor of what has to be said in 
the present chapter will show the pedagogical policy 
in the arrangement. But, in the third place, not to 
pass over too summarily one special fitness, I will say 
a few words upon it at once. 

The manner of teaching the young is oral and tuto- 
rial. All through the Jesuit System the manner fol- 
lowed is oral : in the examinations of the lower classes, 
where writing is admitted, it is only as a specimen 
of style and composition that writing enters the 
examination exercises. With the younger students, 
the manner of teaching is oral in its most specific 
sense. It is not that generic quality which will suit 
as well the lecturer or the public speaker. But it is 
the tutorial manner, which includes a fund of sym- 



YOUTHFUL MASTERS. 177 

patliy, of that tact which supposes sympathy, of such 
a superiority, both moral and intellectual, as knows 
how to stoop, and elevate the boy by stooping, and 
does it all naturally, instinctively, gracefully. In the 
ordinary course of human affairs, this magnetic power 
of the teacher is more intense, according as in years 
he is nearer to the subject on whom liis ascendancy 
plays, and by whom it is spontaneously admitted. I 
mean that inestimable and precious subject, the mind 
and heart of the impressionable boy, who is about to 
develop into manhood, first young, and then mature. 

The youthful subject is rich, though not in posi- 
tive acquisitions already made its own ; for, in this 
respect, it may rather be considered param fructiiosa, 
as Sacchini says ; that is, bearing little fruit as yet, 
either of judgment or positive acquirements. But it 
is rich in its promise, as it struggles upward into the 
sunshine of varied and beautiful truth. This is the 
fact which imposes upon liberal education the duty of 
omitting nothing that is either beautiful or polished, 
in imagination, thought, or style. It justifies Belles 
Lettres and the most finished course of Literature, as 
being the chosen garden of flowers and fruit, to enter^ 
tain withal, richly and exquisitely, the youthful prom- 
ise of mind, sentiment, and heart. 

Or, inverting the figure, if we liken the mind itself 
in youth to the choice and prolific soil of a garden, 
we may note that, to till such soil, there is need of a 
gardener who has a delicate hand and a light touch. 
He must not be a lecturer who stands off, nor a speaker 
who declaims, nor a text-book monger who reads, and 
hears recitations of what a book says ; nor is he to 



178 LOYOLA. 

dole out methods and analyses to an inquisitive sense 
and emotional fancy, which, in the youthful soul, 
are the temporary vesture of an unfolding intellect ; 
even, as in nature around, things tangible and pal- 
pable are bursting, to the boy's inquisitive eyes, with 
the great intellectual truths which fhej contain. 
Analyses, text-books, lectures are not the powers with 
the young mind. But, often enough, we see where 
the real power lies ; when young men, scarcely as yet 
approaching the prime of life, exercise over impres- 
sionable and brilliant youths, not much beneath them- 
selves in age, such a personal influence as bids fair 
to rank them among the greater forces of human 
nature — forces which are great in leading, because 
they know so well how to follow. That other form of 
ascendancy, more purely intellectual, and originating 
in wide learning and maturity of scholarship, belongs 
to the University Professor of a later stage of life. 
Hence it appears that youthfulness in the Master is 
an advantage for the tutorial teaching of the young. 
The critics who drew up the preliminary Batio in 
1586 were of opinion that the Masters in the liter- 
ary courses should be assigned to their work, not 
after their course of Philosophy, but before.^ They 
would except from this arrangement only the Profes- 
sor of Ehetoric ; perhaps, also, in the chief colleges, 
the Professor of Humanity or Poetry; besides, of 
course, those " whose age or deportment shows that 
they are too young to become Masters as yet, or too 
far advanced in years to be kept back from their Phi- 
losophy." In support of this view, they urge several 
1 Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. v, p. 151 seq. 



YOUTHFUL MASTERS. 179 

reasons, which, do not much concern us here ; as, for 
instance, that, if young men have once tasted of the 
subtleties of the philosophers, they can hardly bring 
themselves to take pleasure any more in the insipid 
subject-matter of Grammar 5 they will pore over phil- 
osophical lore ; they will branch off, during class, into 
philosophical digressions, which may serve for show, 
but not for utility. The critics also express a fear 
that these philosophers will bring into the school- 
room a style of language infected with philosophical 
terms ; and they quote the eminent Jesuit, Annibal 
Codret, to the effect that, if Philosophy has been 
tasted beforehand, nothing brilliant in literary style 
can subsequently be guaranteed. But, these argu- 
ments notwithstanding, the Society, when it came to 
sanction a final arrangement, in the legislative docu- 
ment of 1599, seems to have entertained a higher 
idea of the younger members, and of their ability 
and resolution to shake off any deleterious effects of 
scholastic Latin, when they advanced to the chair of 
purest Latinity. Hence the legislation ordains that 
Philosophy is to be studied before undertaking to 
teach Letters.^ 

There are several reasons, however, which, as urged 
by these critics, are quite relevant to our present 
topic. They urge that Grammar studies require a 
certain fervor, or alacrity, which is rather to be found 
in persons who are younger, and so far are nearer to 
the thoughts and sentiments of boyhood. The fuller 
results of education, in this respect, are not to be had 

1 Ratio St., Reg. Prov. 28 ; Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, 
vol. V, p. 260. 



180 LOYOLA. 

from them when older. If authority or experience 
is felt to be wanting, it can readily be supplemented 
by the Prefect of Studies, who is constantly in at- 
tendance on the classes of Grrammar ; and his direction 
finds a sufficient response in the teacher's aptitude and 
docility. Indeed, docility to counsel is so indispensa- 
ble a requisite, on the part of young teachers, that 
the General Mutius Vitelleschi observes : " If they 
were to show themselves impatient of correction, and 
were to refuse the necessary aids for becoming effi- 
cient, they should on all accounts be removed from 
teaching, even if they had filled only half a year ; 
since it is more just and expedient that one suffer 
shame, than that many be injured." ^ 

Unless singular talents, or the bare force of cir- 
cumstance, recommend another course of action, it 
is not desirable that new teachers should at once 
become Masters of the higher class of Grammar or 
of Humanity, though otherwise not unfit for these 
grades. On all accounts, say the critics, the rule 
should be that they start with the lowest classes, and 
then, year after year, advance to the next higher 
grade, with the best part of their scholars. A certain 
crudeness and inexperience which, at the beginning, 
are unavoidable in their management, will cause, as 
long as it lasts, not so much evil with the younger as 
with the older students. Inexperience wears away 
with practice. Then again, if the Masters go up 
each year, and the scholars go with them, the same 
students are very much with the same teachers. 
The young people have not to pass so often from one 

1 Ibid., vol. ix, p. 59. 



YOUTHFUL MASTERS. 181 

kind of management to another. Frequent change 
entails a waste of time, until each party comes to 
know the other, and understand his own as well as 
the other's part.^ In 1583, Father Oliver Manare, 
visiting the German Provinces by the General's au- 
thority, had noticed this point, in his ordinance for 
the management of convictus, or boarding colleges ; 
that " frequent changes were burdensome to the stu- 
dents themselves, because they were forced to accom- 
modate themselves often to new teachers or prefects." - 

In the same sense, these critics, whom we are fol- 
lowing, consider it undesirable that a Master should 
resign his post in less than three years. Frequent 
and manifold changes provoke complaints on the part 
of the outside world. Besides, the Master's own 
efforts at acquiring perfection in the magisterial art 
will be cut short. When there is no prospective per- 
manency in a position, the mind is not so seriously 
applied to the work in hand.^ 

In all this, a most important question regarding 
boys is being faced by these critics ; and a definite 
practical solution is adopted. The question is, which 
of the two alternatives to adopt, whether to sub- 
mit boys to one person's dominant influence, or to 
pass them on through the hands of divers experienced 
and permanent Professors, stationed respectively in 
the different grades. This latter alternative, if it is 
understood to mean that one Professor remains per- 
petually in one grade, and another in another, scarcely 

1 Ibid., vol. V, Rt. St. 1586 ; Humanitatis Magistri, n. 5, p. 153. 

2 Monumenta Germaniae Psedagogica, vol. ii, p. 415. 

3 Ibid., vol. V, n. 3, p. 152. 



182 LOYOLA. 

seems to merit consideration with tliem, except as re- 
gards tlie two highest literary classes, — of Poetry and 
Rhetoric, — where the requirements of erudition are 
so considerable as to need a lengthened term of years 
for filling the chairs worthily. But, if the alternative 
regarding permanent Professors means that the same 
teachers remain constantly within the limits of the 
same curriculum, then the question seems to be the 
one which the critics of the preliminary Ratio argue 
about in both senses, for and against ; and they finally 
arrive at a solution, or rather a compromise.^ 

The severest thing they say against the plan is in 
this wise, when sj)eaking directly of the two highest 
grades : " Perpetuity of that kind may give occasion to 
mere idleness and indifference ; for after acquiring, in 
the first years, some esteem and name for their learning 
(in Poetry or Ehetoric), Masters prefer to enjoy the 
fruit and name of the labor already undergone, how- 
ever moderate that was, rather than wear themselves 
out with new labors. Hence they make no new ac- 
quisitions in the learning and accomplishments proper 
to their branch; they get rooted in very much the 
same spot, and teach what they have taught before 
over and over again, though with some variations. 
What is worse, as if they were quite worn out with 
their prolonged exertions, they say that they cannot 
any longer stand all the labor of exercising their stu- 
dents; whence everything freezes, and they ask for 
an assistant, who, if he is unlearned, does more harm 
than good; if learned, then why are two doing the 
work of one?" 

1 Ibid., vol. V. n. 4, p. 152. 



YOUTHFUL MASTERS. 183 

The solution which they arrive at is a compromise, 
which recognizes peculiar advantages in both arrange- 
ments. It is embodied in several rules of the Ratio 
Studiorum} As many perpetual Professors as possi- 
ble, for Grammar and Ehetoric, are to be provided; 
and some candidates for admission to the Order, who 
seem qualified for this field of work, though apparently 
not likely to succeed in the higher studies of the So- 
ciety, may be admitted on this condition, that they 
devote themselves in perpetuity to this work of zeal. 
Thus such exigencies are provided for as postulate a 
perpetuity of professorship within the same limited 
curriculum. 

On the other hand, the normal process is that which 
arranges a constant succession of teachers in the col- 
lege, but not a constant change with the same boys. 
The same boys go hand in hand with the one Master, 
with whom they have most to do. And no one is to 
take charge of them, however transiently, says the 
General Vitelleschi, "whether on account of fewness 
of numbers, or merely to suppl}^ for another in his 
absence, of whom it is not certain that he is qualified 
for the post."^ The very frequent mention, in all 
these discussions, of something like domestic trage- 
dies resulting from the change of masters, seems to 
show two things; first, it justifies the practice of 
keeping the same Professor over the same boys for a 
certain term of years, if not until the class itself dis- 
solves into higher courses ; secondly, it shows what a 
usual condition it was for masters to have won the 

1 Ibid., vol. V, p. 260; Reg. Prov. 24, 25. 

2 Ibid., vol. ix, p. 60; letter of the year 1639, 



184 LOYOLA. 

most absolute attachment to themselves, in the exer- 
cise of their magisterial duties, both on the side of 
parents and on the part of the scholars. Thus, speak- 
ing of the Professors mounting with their classes, the 
critics say : " They will have observed what their dis- 
ciples need; they will take them up to the next class. 
And hence, that changing of Masters, which has caused 
so many tragic scenes, will not be felt so much." ^ 

Add to these elements of permanency and identity, 
another which is most fundamental of all, the identity 
of their formation as Masters; so that the young 
Jesuits, as the General Yisconti sums up the matter 
in 1752, " must have the most accomplished Profes- 
sors of Rhetoric, immediately after their novitiate, 
men who not only are altogether eminent in this fac- 
ulty, but who know how to teach, and make every- 
thing smooth for them; men of eminent talent and the 
widest experience in the art; who are not merely to 
form good scholars, but to train good Masters " ; and 
that " two years entire must be given to Rhetoric, ac- 
cording to the custom of the Society, which term is 
not to be abridged, unless necessity is urgent." ^ Add, 
moreover, the uniformity of plan, " so that the form of 
our schools may be everywhere as much as possible 
the same, and, when Masters are changed, itself need 
undergo no change."'^ It follows that, though the 
flow of new blood is constantly entering the pedagogic 
body, and a constant renewal is taking place, neither 
the permanency nor the identity of the teaching body 
and its system is found to depend upon the same in- 
dividuals remaining at the same posts. Naturally, 

1 Ibid., vol. V, p. 154. 2 ibid., vol. ix, p. 130, n. 2. 3 ibid., n. 6. 



YOUTHFUL MASTEES. 185 

such conditions are not to be looked for, except in tlie 
special circumstances of a religious community, with 
perfect organization in the body, with the conscien- 
tiousness of a self-denying formation actuating the 
members, with the landmarks of traditions, and a 
statutory method to show the way; and, finally, with 
executive officials adequate to control. 

As to this last-named condition of executive super- 
intendence over persons and things in the system, 
several rules for the Prefect of Studies of these liter- 
ary courses will explain themselves. The Ratio of 
1599 says: "Let him have the rules of the Masters 
and scholars, and see that they are observed, as if 
they were his own. Let him help the Masters them- 
selves and direct them, and be especially cautious 
that the esteem and authority due to them be not in 
the least impaired. Let him be very solicitous that 
the new Preceptors follow with accuracy the manner 
of teaching, and other customs of their predecessors, 
provided that these were not foreign to our method; 
so that persons outside may not have reason to find 
fault with the frequent change of Masters. Once a 
fortnight, at least, let him listen to each one teach- 
ing."^ 

This moral identity being secured, in the ways, 
means, and views of the teaching body, the individual 
and personal elements, which each Master brings to 
bear upon the work before him, are no more interfered 
Avith, or hampered by community of method, than 
are all the varieties of race, nation, politics, and en- 
vironment, slighted or interfered with by a single 

1 Ibid., vol. V, p. 352. 



186 LOYOLA. 

system of collegiate institution being placed in their 
midst. It was in view of being everywhere, that the 
system was cast in its precise and adjustable form, so 
that, in spite of being everywhere, it should be found 
equally manageable and effective. And similarly, in 
spite of the system itself being one, the play of indi- 
vidual talents can be various, as are the movable fac- 
tors in any great organization. 

We may close this chapter by observing several 
far-reaching consequences of the foregoing principles. 
In the first place, those who, after personal experience 
in the classes, come to take charge of colleges in the 
capacity of Electors, are found, say the critics of 1586, 
to take full and accurate account of studies and Profes- 
sors alike ; for they themselves " have borne the bur- 
den of the schools, and know how to sympathize with 
others from their own experience " ; a fact which is 
the more conducive to the end in view, as "colleges 
have been instituted for the study of letters. Be- 
sides, not unfrequently there arise in the classes, espe- 
cially of the smaller colleges, difficulties which can 
scarcely be overcome, except by a Kector who has 
personal experience to guide him; otherwise, whether 
he chances to solve the difficulty aright, or solves it 
awry, he will not do much good either way, since they 
do not give him the credit of knowing how." ^ The 
" smaller colleges " spoken of here, as more liable to 
encounter internal difficulties, are contrasted else- 
where by these critics with " the greater and principal 
ones, in which there are many counsellors or referees 
at hand, to whom the Masters can have recourse for 

1 Ibid., vol. V, p. 149. 



YOUTHFUL MASTERS. 187 

assistance ; and the schools themselves have sufficient 
authority. ' ' But, in what they call the minor colleges, 
" the authority of the schools depends for the most part 
on the reputation and authority of the individual Mas- 
ters," who happen at a given time to be filling the posts.^ 
In the spirit of this personal and experienced con- 
currence with all the affairs of the college, the Eector 
is required so to moderate the other concerns of his 
office, as to be prompt in fostering and advancing all 
literary exercises. He is to go often to the classes, 
those of the lower faculties as well as of the higher.^ 
Every month, or at least every other month, he is to 
hold general consultations with all the Masters be- 
low the course of Logic, the several Prefects being 
present ; and, after the reading of some selection from 
the Ratio, concerning the Masters or the piety and 
good conduct of the students, he is to inquire what 
difficulties occur, or what omissions are noticed in the 
observance of rules. ^ Books are never to be wanting, 
in the sufficiency desired by the members generally, 
whether they are engaged in teaching, or are pursuing 
their studies. '^ To this regulation, which concerns the 
chief authority in a Province, the revised Batio of 
1832 adds: "The same is to be said of literary pe- 
riodicals for the use of the Professors ; of museums, 
physical apparatus, and other equipments, which are 
needed by a college according to its degree.'' The 
General Visconti observes somewhat emphatically, 

1 Ibid., p. 153. 

2 Rt. St., Reg. Rect. 3 ; Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. v, 
p. 268. 

3 Ibid., n. 18, p. 272. 

4 Reg. Prov. 33 ; Monumenta Germannise Pajdagogica, p. 262. 



188 LOYOLA. 

that "in buying books the Eectors will never con- 
sider the money of their colleges ill spent." ^ 

Jouvancy applies the same principle to publishing 
the literary productions of the Masters. He first 
sketches the series of literary productions expected 
from them, — the annual addresses of inauguration to 
be given by each Professor in his own class, the public 
and solemn one to be delivered, on the same inaugural 
occasion, by the Professor of Ehetoric, the poem to be 
composed and read by the Master of Poetry; then, 
during the year, a certain number of addresses to be 
delivered ; and, at the end, a tragedy composed by the 
Professor of Ehetoric, a minor drama by the Professor 
of Poetry, both to be acted on the stage. Jouvancy 
goes on to recommend that no public occasion be 
allowed to go by, without receiving the tribute of 
some such literary work. Then he adds : " jSTor is that 
expense to be considered useless which is incurred for 
printing and publishing good poems. In all these 
matter, splendors should be added to literary exercises, 
and to the exhibition thereof, in such wise that every- 
thing meanwhile tends to solidity of erudition. " ^ 

A second consequence of the literary cast, marking 
the whole Order, is the vantage-ground on which it 
placed the Jesuits, with regard to all the learning and 
the learned men of Europe. The fluent and elegant 
command of the Latin language gave at once a mastery 
over the vehicle of intercourse, in which all learning 
was conveyed. Our critics of 1586 sum up the 
bearings of this particular advantage under several 

1 Ibid., vol. ix, p. 131. 

■^ Jouvancy, Ratio Discendi ; c. Ordo Studendi. 



YOUTHFUL MASTERS. 189 

heads: The members of the Order deal with so 
many nations; scholastic disputations, whether in 
Philosophy or Theology, are always conducted in 
Latin ; the members write so many books ; they can 
do justice to the ancient Fathers of the Church; 
they have to deal constantly with learned men.^ 

A last consequence, which I shall present, is sug- 
gested by an observation of the same writers, in 
the same place. It throws no little light upon the 
history of the Society, and it shows the practical ad- 
justment of the educational system to the times. They 
say then, it is by the studies of Belles-Lettres, more 
than by the higher faculties, that the Society has, in 
a short time, been propagated through all the principal 
parts of Christendom. Nor can it be preserved better 
or more solidly, than by the same means through 
which it was first introduced. Unless they endeavor 
to maintain this honorable distinction, with which 
God has been pleased to grace the Society, there is 
reason to fear that they themselves may yet lapse into 
the barbarism, which they are far from admiring in 
others. "As to the other faculties, which are bril- 
liant enough of themselves, there is no trouble in cul- 
tivating them. But, natural inclinations feeling a 
repugnance for less conspicuous pursuits, people 
have, as it were, to drag themselves to these lower 
faculties. They should take lesson, therefore, by good 
husbandmen, who bestow more care on transplanted 
and exotic growths than on native shoots."^ And 
they proceed to quote the rule, formulated in the 
words of Ignatius, by the General Everard Mercurian, 

1 Monumenta Germanife Predagogica, vol. v, p. 144. 2 ibid. 



190 LOYOLA. 

who required the institution and ^^reservation of the 
literary seminary.^ So that we end here this discus- 
sion on the lower faculties, at the point where we 
began. 

In all well-assorted plans each element has a refer- 
ence to every other. Men must match the work, and 
the work be suited to the men. Were the men not 
formed, the best system would settle into an inert 
state; and, the more consistency and vitality of its 
own it offered to contribute, the more inept and inert 
would it look, a memorial of what it might do, dead 
to what it can. In itself, and in its effects, it might 
appear to be out of date, as not being understood. 
Only the practical working of a thing, by the man 
who understands it, shows it off for what it is worth. 
This is a rule quite universal, wherever practical in- 
sight is needed for the working of a mechanism. It 
must be worked intelligently to be understood. Once 
it is understood, the practical intelligence grows. 

1 Ibid., vol. ii, p. 126; Reg. Prov. n. 50. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

THE COURSES OF DIVINITY AND ALLIED SCIENCES. 
PRIVATE STUDY. KEPETITIOX. 

1. Having finished his course of teaching literature, 
the Jesuit returns to his higher studies. Divinity 
and its allied sciences stand out in prominence for 
their intrinsic dignity; but they have, besides, a 
studied preeminence assigned them in the system 
before us. The almost universal rule, of intermit- 
ting the higher studies with a course of literary teach- 
ing, undergoes "a special exception in the case of those 
"theologians, whose number is few, and use so 
manifold " ; ^ of whom Aquaviva says that, " accord- 
ing as the higher courses are developed, the fewer 
proportionately, out of many students, become quali- 
fied to profess those exalted sciences."^ The same 
policy holds with respect to those who have an 
eminent talent for oratory. Laynez, himself a great 
preacher, and a competent judge in the matter, 
relieved Father Francis Strada of the office of Pro- 
vincial, to set him free for the ministry of the pulpit ; 
and he wrote, as he did so : " If only he had a suf- 
ficiency of those whom he could put in the offi.ce of 
Provincial, he would relieve all preachers of that 

1 Rt. St. 1586 ; Monumenta Germaniaj Paedagogica, vol. v, p. 150. 

2 Formula Acceptandorum Collegiorum, b ; Monumenta Germa- 
niae Paedagogica, vol. ii, p. 339. 191 



192 LOYOLA. 

office, that they might devote themselves entirely to 
spreading the seed of the Divine Word. " ^ Of these 
and others, " who give eminent promise of being equal 
to the graver occupations, or for whom an immediate 
need exists in that direction, " ^ an immediate applica- 
tion is to be made to the study of Theology.^ 

All who graduate in these higher courses do so, as 
'' qualified to profess " ; just as they had graduated 
in Philosophy and its cognate branches.^ But, though 
a master in the matter of his philosophical triennium, 
no student is called upon to profess any of those 
branches, until he has graduated also in Theology. 
Here we may advert to several lines of strict paral- 
lelism in the system, both with regard to admitting 
any students, whether Jesuits or not, to the respective 
courses of study, and with regard to admitting Jesuits 
themselves to profess in the chairs. 

As a condition for admitting any students at all 
into the higher courses, the Society introduced a much- 
needed reform, in requiring that literary qualifica- 
tions of a sufficiently high grade should precede ma- 
triculation. Thus the University of Ingolstadt ordains 
that no one shall be admitted to Academic, that is, 
University lectures, except after one year of Ehetoric ; 
and it adds very strict regulations about the election 
of courses, repetitions, disputations, etc., in the three 
years' curriculum of Philosophy.^ 

1 Hist. S. J., Sacchini, pars ii, Lainius, lib. viii, n. 219, ad annum 
1564. 2 Rt. St. 1586, ibid. 

3 Rt. St. 1599, Reg. Prov. 27 ; Monumenta Germanise Psedagogica, 
vol. V, p. 260. 4 Chapter xi, above, p. 155. 

5 Statuten der philos. Fak. Ingolstadt, 1649; De Auditoribus; 
Monumenta Germanise Psedagogica, vol. ix, p. 284. 



COURSES OF DIVINITY. 193 

In like manner, to be admitted as a student of Di- 
vinity and its correlative sciences, it is necessar}^ to 
have graduated in the course of Arts, that is to say, 
Philosophy and its branches. Thus the University 
of Wiirzburg ordains that no one shall be admitted 
as an auditor of Scholastic Theology, unless he be 
Magisterio insignis, "a Master of Arts"; it excepts 
only the members of religious Orders in attendance, 
and also Pmicipis Aliumios, "the Prince's scholars." 
Others, who have not so graduated, it will admit to 
Moral Theology and its supplementary branches. It 
will not even examine, for the Mastership in Arts, 
any one, whether a Eeligious or not, who has studied 
Philosophy in a private institution or a monastery.^ 
To apply for Academic Degrees, "they must prove 
that they have followed all the courses in some ap- 
proved public University." - 

The curriculum, now before the student, is a quad- 
riennium, or four-year course. It is prolonged into 
a fifth and sixth year, for reviewing the whole ground 
of one's studies; for preparing a public defence against 
all comers; and, in the case of Jesuit students, for 
an immediate preparation to fill the Professor's chair, 
the pulpit, or to discharge other functions. Hence 
the University of Cologne specifies, in general, a sex- 
ennium, or six-year course for Theology.^ 

1 Qui non in Academia, sed privatim in aliquo Auditorio aut 
Monasterio audierunt philosophiam. 

2 Nisi probent se omnes materias publice audivisse in aliqua 
Academia probata : Wiirzburger Promotionsgebrauche, 1662 : Monu- 
menta Germanise Psedagogica, vol. ix, p. 387. 

3 Rhetius S. J. fiir Reform der theol. Fak. zu Koln, November, 
1570; Monumeuta Germanise Pjedagogica, vol. ii, p. 217. 



194 LOYOLA. 

Not unlike to this is the parallelism which we may 
noticcj in appointing the members of the Society to 
Professors' chairs. Though qualified to teach litera- 
ture after his own complete course of letters in the 
seminary, yet, as we have seen, no one is to be put 
over the classes of Grammar or Humanity who has 
not first studied his Philosophy. And so again, at 
this stage, though apparently competent to teach 
Philosophy, and approved as being qualified to pro- 
fess it, yet no one is to be put in a chair of that 
course who has not also studied his Theology.^ 

The reasons for this are assigned by the critics of 
1586. The philosopher, they say, who has not yet 
become a theologian, will not be so safe in his con- 
clusions, in his proofs, in his manner of expression. 
He will be of an age less mature. His learning will 
be less superabundant. He will scarcely be able to 
answer the arguments of unbelievers. ISTor will he 
treat Philosophy in a way to render it useful to 
Theology. In fine, the proprieties of things cannot 
be well observed, if he who has just filled a chair of 
Philosophy has to sit down as a mere student in The- 
ology. - 

The branches of this theological course are Scholas- 
tic Theology, Moral Theology, Sacred Scripture, He- 
brew and Oriental Languages, Ecclesiastical History, 
and Canon Law. The general category of students 
is naturally more limited than in the philosophical 
curriculum. There the auditors were young men, 

1 Rt. St., Reg. Prov. 28; Monumenta Germaniae Psedagogica, vol. 
V, p. 260. 

2 Ibid., vol. V, p. 133, n. 10, Studium Philos. 



COURSES OF DIV^INITY. 195 

who would betake tlieiiiselves, at its close, to Medi- 
cine, or other walks of life. They may have taken to 
Law; though Possevino, himself eminent in jurispru- 
dence, would seem to imply that Canon Law must 
have been pursued first. ^ The students now are chiefly 
Ecclesiastics, with various careers before them ; or they 
are Religious of different Orders; or, finally, the 
members of the Society itself. The principal object 
of our consideration is the formation of these latter, 
as qualified to profess. The pedagogical elements 
before us may be ranged under three heads : Private 
Study; Eepetition, which includes Disputation; Lec- 
turing, which is supplemented by Dictation. 

2. As to the method of private study, all the 
auditors of the course are directed to look over, prior 
to the lecture,- the text in Aristotle, St. Thomas, 
etc., which the Professor is about to explain.^ Then, 
while the lecture is being delivered, they take down 
notes; the copying of mere dictation is not favored. 
After the lecture, they are to read over the notes which 
they have taken down. L^t them endeavor to under- 
stand their annotations. Understanding what they 
have written, they are to make objections to them- 
selves against the thesis established, and endeavor to 
solve their own objections. If they cannot find a solu- 
tion, let them note the difficulties, and take occasion to 
ask the Professor, or reserve them for disputation. 
Such is the method of private study prescribed for the 
members of the Order, ^ and laid down in more general 

1 Biblioth. Selecta; de Cultura Ingeniorum, cap. 27. 

2 Prsevidere. 3 Prselegere. 
^ Monumenta Germauiae Psedagogica, vol. v, p. 450, n. 4. 



196 LOYOLA. 

terms for the other students.^ To develop habits of 
such study, and to afford the requisite leisure, a cer- 
tain custom, then prevailing in Portugal, of keeping 
the Professors of Philosophy and their students dur- 
ing two hours and a half consecutively in the lecture 
room is discountenanced by the critics of 1586 : " That 
the philosophers should remain two whole hours and 
a half in class, as is now done, is burdensome to the 
Professor and troublesome to the students ; for these 
latter should get accustomed to private study, lest, 
like parrots, they seem to be always talking by rote." ^ 

This curtailing of class hours was characteristic of 
the Society's system. In 1567 the G-eneral Father 
Francis Borgia wrote, through his secretary Polanco, 
correcting, in this respect, a school-regulation which 
had been followed in the lower classes of the German 
Province. The secretary writes: ''It is found by ex- 
perience, in the schools of the Company, that to teach 
three consecutive hours in the forenoon, and three 
more in the afternoon, is injurious to the health of 
our Masters, and does no good to the health of the 
scholars ; for which reason it is now ordained that in 
our schools the morning classes shall not last longer 
than two and a half hours, and the same in the after- 
noon."^ 

Nothing intensifies more the results of studies than 
concentration, nor dissipates them more than division 
of attention, while a given pursuit is in progress. 

1 Ibid., p. 460, n. 9. 

2Rt. St. 1586, Studium Philos. n. 12; Monumenta Germanise 
Pjedagogica, vol. v, p. 134. Compare also tlie German Province, 
where, in 1586, four hours are reduced to three, ibid., vol. ii, p. 283. 

3 Monumenta Germanife Pfedagogica, vol. ii, p. 154. 



COURSES OF DIVINITY. 197 

This principle applies to the number of courses taken 
up at one time, the conduct of private studies in any 
single course, and the degree to which the appointed 
teachers and the standard authors have full justice 
done them. On this head, the critics of 1586 give 
recommendations, derived from the Constitution, for 
the direction of all the students in general, and for 
the members of the Order in particular. The recom- 
mendations are embodied briefly in the Ratio JStu- 
diorum} With Aristotle in Philosophy, or with St. 
Thomas in Theology, one commentary is to be desig- 
nated, and that a specially chosen author, suited to 
the individual's capacity. In the second year of 
Theology, one of the Fathers of the Church can be 
added, " to be read at odds and ends of time, or after 
the fatigue of a long stretch of study. Another can 
be substituted, if after a while they ask for another. 
But care should be taken that they do not spend too 
much time on this reading, as if they were getting up 
a sermon." - 

All this, no doubt, tends to make the student ''a 
man of one book," who, as the adage saj^s, is much to 
be feared. However, when he goes through every 
course, and is everywhere a man of concentrated at- 
tention, while, for the purpose of public disputation 
and the attempted refutation of his own and the 
Professor's conclusions, the side avenues of various 
authors and systems are studiously and necessarily 
kept open, it is probable that, after being "a man of 

1 Ibid., vol. V, p. 108, De Private Studio Scholasticorum ; ibid, 
p. 133, n. 11, Studium Philos. 

2 Ut concionabundi. 



198 LOYOLA. 

one book," in many courses successively, lie will also 
be well-rounded by the time his formation is com- 
plete. With students in general, this can be accom- 
plished by the age of twenty-five ; with the Jesuits 
themselves, about the age of thirty-three. 

3. I come now to the subject of Eepetition, of 
which two chief forms offer themselves. One is just 
what the word of itself indicates ; it belongs to all the 
faculties, but chiefly to the lower courses. I shall 
call it by the generic name of Eepetition. The other 
has place principally in the higher; it is Disputation j 
of which a preparatory exercise, called Coricertatio, 
prevails also from the lowest class of Grammar up- 
wards. 

Eepetition then rehearses in full class, under various 
forms or modifications of that exercise, what the Pro- 
fessor has explained in class. Just before the close 
of the hour spent on his lecture, the Professor of 
Philosophy or Theology signifies that he is ready for 
questions on the matter treated; he asks sometimes 
an account of the lecture, and he sees that it is re- 
peated. The revised Batio of 1832 puts it, in more 
general terms, thus: "He is often to require an ac- 
count of the lectures, and to see that they are re- 
peated " ; and then it desires that, after the lecture, 
either in the class-room, or somewhere near, he re- 
main accessible to the students for at least a quarter 
of an hour, to answer their questions.^ This is all 
from the Constitution of Ignatius. 

The Eepetition, which he is to see to personally, 

^ Rt. St., Reg. comm. Prof. sup. fac. n, 11; Monumenta Germanise 
Paedagogica, vol. v, p. 290. 



COURSES OF DIVINITY. 199 

is that which, takes place in small circles of about 
ten students each. " At the close of the lectures let 
them, in parties of about ten apiece, repeat for half 
an hour what they have just heard ; one of the stu- 
dents, and, if possible, a member of the Society, 
presiding over each party, decuria."^ Neither the 
preliminary, nor the final, Batio demands that the Pro- 
fessor himself preside over any of these parties. But 
" those who do preside will become more learned, and 
will be practising to become Masters themselves."^ 

It must be admitted that the tenor of many re- 
marks in the earlier document of 1586, shows the 
presence of Jesuits among the auditors to have acted 
on the course as a leaven and a relief; although the 
concurrent testimony of historians, about the Jesuit 
schools, indicates little or nothing there of that license 
of manners, such as Possevino described for us in a 
former chapter.^ In a special manner, those Jesuit 
students, already young priests, who, having gone 
through their four-year course, were now reviewing 
in a biennium, of a fifth and sixth year, all their long 
studies of the higher sciences, stood ready at hand for 
many functions in the arena of direction and presi- 
dency, either over the repetitions or the disputations, 
or in the chair; to which as many of them as were 
needed would be officially assigned, when their private 
studies left them at last free.* 

1 Rt. St. 1599, Reg. Prof. Phil. n. 16; 1832, n. 9; Monumenta Ger- 
manije Paedagogica, vol. v, pp 340, 332. 

2 Rt. St. 1586, Repetitiones, n. 3; Monumenta Germanias Paeda- 
gogica, vol. V, p. 99. 

3 Chapter vii, above, The Moral Scope, p. 101. 

4 Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. v, p. 268; Reg. Rect. n. 6. 



200 LOYOLA. 

To say a word upon this class of Jesuit students, 
they show us the Professor's formation at its last 
stage. They are reviewing all Theology, Philosophy, 
Sacred Scripture, Canon Law, Polemical or Contro- 
versial Theology, and ecclesiastical erudition gen- 
erally. The last of their rules for self -guidance says : 
"In particular, they are to devote themselves most 
of all to that pursuit, to which they feel chiefly 
drawn, without, however, omitting any of the rest."^ 
Meanwhile, they present, in various ways, specimens 
of their talent and erudition ; they throw into the form 
of a digest, "from their own genius," all Theology, 
under certain heads and principles ; they can choose 
some "splendid subject," ^ and deliver ten public lec- 
tures thereupon to the auditors who choose to attend, 
Avhich, we may observe, was precisely the status of 
all Professors in the mediaeval universities. In their 
acts of public defence, five of which are prescribed 
during the two years, they are free to follow or to 
leave the opinions of their late Professors.^ 

These students then are assistant and extraordinary 
Professors. They have begun the work, which some 
of them will continue when called upon to become 
Professors in ordinary. They are already in train- 
ing for that independent work, which the revised 
Ratio of 1832 shows some anxiety about preserving; 
for it says to all who occupy any chair in these fac- 
ulties, that, in case they adopt a standard author to 
follow in their lectures, which is a custom rather 

1 Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, p. 456 ; Institutio pro bien- 
nio, n. 14. ^ Prseclara aliqua materia. 

3 Ibid., p. 454. 



COURSES OF DIVINITY. 201 

prevalent in more recent times, they must neverthe- 
less deliver each year some special question elaborated 
independently by themselves.^ This independence of 
style, perfect command of the matter, with express 
leave for the incipient Professor, in the course of his 
final biennium, to relinquish the opinions of his late 
Professors, are made the subject of many a remark by 
the critics of 1586. Withal, it is clear enough that 
for a younger man to leave an approved opinion 
safely, it is very necessary for him to know well what 
he is about; and doubly necessary when he comes 
forward in a public defence; for his own late Pro- 
fessors are among the Doctors present, and are there 
to assail him in all his tenets. 

These, then, or others presiding over the circles, 
"one person repeats, the others listening; they pro- 
pose difficulties mutually, and, if they cannot solve 
their own objections, they consult the Professor."^ 
The one who repeats is to do so, not from his notes, 
but from memory. Thus " the memory is exercised ; 
practice is afforded those who are to be Masters, so 
that they accustom themselves to develop their 
thoughts before others ; it makes them all keep alive 
and attentive during the lecture, to take down the 
necessary notes, as they might not do, if they were 
free from such repetition."^ There are several other 
possible forms of conducting this exercise. 

1 Reg. coram. Prof. sup. fac, n. 9 ; Monumenta Germanise Paeda- 
gogica, p. 288. 

2 Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 6, H. 

3 Rt. St. 1586, Repetitiones ; Monumenta GermanifB Psedagogica, 
vol. V, p. 99. 



202 LOYOLA. 

When once the first crude repetition is over, the 
series of disputations begins, daily, weekly, monthly, 
yearly. Without counting in the " Grand Acts " of pub- 
lic defence against all objectors, at stated times and by 
specially designated persons, we may enumerate as 
many as seven ordinary rehearsals of the same matter. 

First, before going to the lecture hall, the student 
looks over the text. This is done easily enough in 
St. Thomas or Aristotle, if one of these is the stan- 
dard. ' As Ignatius expected would be done, many 
standard works have been published by writers of the 
Society.^ Their recommendation is, as he intimated, 
that they are " more adapted to our times " ; and they 
have incorporated recent researches in progressive 
branches. In the sense of this adaptation to times 
and circumstances, the theologians in Cologne, making 
their announcement for the year 1578, say that they 
follow St. Thomas as a general rule, but not so " as to 
treat all that he treats, nor only what he treats. . . . 
Every age," they say, "has its own debated ground 
in matters of doctrine, and this brings it to pass that 
Theology is not only constantly enlarged with a 
variety of new disputations, but assumes, as it were, a 
new cast." ^ And the critics of the preliminary Ratio, 
treating of the Scripture course, lecture at some length 
-all whom it may concern, — theologians, professors, 
preachers, — precisely on 'this ground, the need of 
amplifying and adapting the course of Scripture to 
the conditions of the times. ^ Accordingly, works 

1 Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 14, B. 

2 Monumenta Germanise Psedagogica, vol. ii, p. 245. 

3 Ibid., vol. V, p. 68. 



COURSES OF DIVINITY 203 

always new and adapted to latest needs, have poured 
forth from the writers of the Order. And such as 
furnish the conditions of a text, which may readily 
be followed, also supply the conditions for conning 
over, before going to the lecture hall, what the Pro- 
fessor means to treat. If no such standard is being 
followed, still, as I find noted in a documentary 
report of 1886, " the Professors should always, as far 
as possible, throw out directions enough for the stu- 
dents to look up the subject before coming to the lec- 
ture." 

In this connection many familiar names of authors 
occur. For Scholastic Theology and Philosophy, 
there is, in the first place, the prince of modern the- 
ologians, Francis Suarez, with his library of tomes; 
there are the three Cardinals Toletus, Bellarmine, De 
Lugo; Valentia, Vasquez, Lessius, Franzelin; and, 
in the modern school of Scholastic Philosophy, the 
elegant Liberatore, Kleutgen, Tongiorgi, Pesch, along 
with the writers of Louvain, Stonyhurst, Innsbruck, 
and elsewhere ; in Positive Theology and Controversy, 
Canisius, Becanus, Petau, Sardagna; in Exegesis, 
Maldonado, Salmeron, A Lapide, Menochius, Patrizi, 
Cornely, with the school of Maria Laach; in Moral 
Theology, an endless number, Sanchez, Laymann, 
Busembaum, with his two hundred editions, Gury, 
Ballerini.^ 

Secondly, the student hears the Professor's lecture. 
Thirdly, one of the forms of regular repetition is 
gone through. Fourthly, the daily disputation takes 

1 Consult the five volumes of Nomenclator Litterarius Recentioris 
Theologian Catholicae, by H. Hurter, S. J., 1871-1886. 



204 LOYOLA. 

place, at least among the Jesuit Scholastics: "At 
home, every day except on Saturdays, free and feast 
days, one hour is to be appointed," during which, 
after, a preliminary summarizing of the matter for 
defence, the disputation follows ; and, if time remains 
over, difficulties may be proposed. " In order to have 
some time remain over, the president must have the 
syllogistic form of discussion rigidly observed; and, 
if nothing new is being urged, he will cut off the 
debate."! 

Fifthly, there is the weekly disputation: "On 
Saturday, or some other day, as the custom of the 
University has it, let them hold disputations in the 
schools during two hours, or longer still, whenever 
there is a large concourse of persons who come to 
hear."^ Sixthly, the more solemn disputation fol- 
lows, every month, or nearly so : " Each month, or, 
if the students are few, every other month, let dispu- 
tations be held on a certain day, both morning and 
afternoon. The number of defendants will correspond 
to the number of Professors whose theses they de- 
fend. " ^ Seventhly, towards the close of the scholastic 
year, though no time is to be set aside for the purpose, 
so as to prejudice the continuous course of the Pro- 
fessor's lectures, yet "all the matter of the year is to 
have been gone through, by way of repetition, when 
the time of vacation arrives."* The whole of this 

1 Rt. St., Reg. comm. Prof. sup. fac, n. 12 ; Monumenta Germanise 
Psedagogica, vol. v, p. 290; compare also Monumenta Germanise 
Paidagogica, vol. ix, Ordnung Einer Selbst. Univ. der Ges. J. 1658, 
pars ii, c. 4, p. 355 ; De Repetitonibus et Disputationibus Scholasti- 
corum S. J. 

2 Ibid., n. 14. 3 Ibid., n. 20. ^ Ibid., n. 13. 



COURSES OF DIVINITY. 205 

matter forms the subject of tlie year's examination for 
the Jesuit members of the course.^ To all these argu- 
mentative repetitions may be added the discursive 
form, in the shape of lectures given by the students 
themselves, or dissertations read on stated occasions." 

It is evident that the members of the Society are 
the chief subjects of this completeness of formation; 
and that for two reasons. In the first place, no other 
students, even if convictores, that is, boarders in the 
Jesuit colleges, can be brought under such a thorough- 
ness of system. Secondly, other students are not in 
the same way subject to the regular gradation of exam- 
inations from year to year. When they are com- 
petent, they may apply for admission to the requisite 
public tests, or Acts of Defence ; and, in the philosoph- 
ical courses, they become Bachelors, Licentiates, and 
Masters of Arts ; in Theology, Bachelors in the first 
and then in the second grade. Licentiates, Doctors. 
"Ko degree is to be conferred on any one who has 
not stood all the tests, which, according to the custom 
of Universities, must precede the conferring of these 
degrees." The character of each degree, its condi- 
tions, tests, formalities, are treated of fully in the 
" Form and Method of conducting Academies and Stu- 
cUa Generalia S. J.," 1658. 

Here, then, the spirit of the Constitution is fully 
observed, with regard to repetition and also disputa- 
tion. The Fathers remark that Ignatius "recom- 

1 Monumenta Germaniae Psedagogica, vol. ii, p. 95; Congr. gen. 11. 

2 Reg. Prof. S. Script., n. 19, 20; also Statuten der philos. Fak. 
Ingolstadt, 1649, Monumenta Germaniae Paedagogica, vol. ix, p. 291. 

3 Monumenta Germaniae Psedagogica, vol. ix, pp. 359-381. 



206 LOYOLA. 

mends nothing with more urgency than disputation, 
and constancy in its exercise; so much stress does he 
lay upon it, as not to let the students of Letters and 
Grammar go without it."^ In the lower classes it 
takes the form of concertatio and mutual challenges, in 
the matter of Grammar and literary doctrine. Here 
it is in its full form; and we may pass on to consider 
it in the next chapter, not as a manner of repetition, 
but on its own merits. 

I will make the transition, by quoting an important 
passage or two from the preliminary Ratio. They 
bear not only on disputation, but on that very essen- 
tial point, where it is that the vital power for actuat- 
ing the whole system lies ; and what is the intrinsic 
value of any system, as a mere code of legislation. 

The critics say that, to counteract the apparent 
decline of disputation, and to restore this exercise 
to its ancient form and splendor, everything depends 
on the vigilance and diligence of those in authority. 
" Without this, nothing will be effected, even though, 
for the proper administration of this department of 
studies, many laws and precepts are put down in 
writing."^ Elsewhere, acknowledging in another 
connection that there is indeed a multitude of points 
defined for observance, the same writers go on to make 
these pertinent reflections: "The perfection of doc- 
trine, like the perfection of moral life, stands in need 
of many aids; whence it is that there is no people 
under the direction of more laws than the Christian 
people, nor any Eeligious Order more under the obli- 

1 Rt, St. 1586, Disputationes ; Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, 
vol. V, p. 103. 2 Ibid. 



COURSES OF DIVINITY. 207 

gation of Constitution and Decrees than our own." 
They undertake to prove the advantage of this, both 
from the side of those in authority, and of those 
under authority. "Aristotle and St. Thomas," they 
say, "are both of opinion that as few points as 
possible should be left to the private opinions of a 
judge, and as many as possible should be determined 
by the clear definition of law. They prove it; for 
it is easier to find the few wise men, whose wisdom 
is equal to the task of determining fixed rules of 
guidance, than to find the multitude, which other- 
wise is required to pass judgment in all contin- 
gencies of time and place; there is the sanction of 
greater maturity in laws which have stood the test 
of time and experience, than in the off-hand decision 
of the present hour; there is less of a corrupting in- 
fluence on law-givers, when they are defining things 
in general and for the future. "Wherefore, whatever 
can be despatched by general law is so to be despatched; 
what cannot be provided for by such law is to be left 
to the judge, as the living rule. Under this head 
come the particular decisions to be passed in given 
junctures, whereof the general law cannot take cog- 
nizance." So far Aristotle and St. Thomas; and the 
Fathers of 1586 agree with them.^ 

1 Ibid., vol. V, Commentariolus, p. 45 seq. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 

DISPUTATION. DICTATION. 

1. Many wise things had been said by the experi- 
enced masters of old on the subject of disputation. 
Thus Eobert of Sorbon, the founder of the College of 
tho Sorbonne, had put it down in one of his six es- 
sential rules for the scholar, that " nothing is perfectly 
known unless masticated by the tooth of disputa- 
tion." ^ 

Our Jesuit critics mention incidentallyj in one 
place, that "their age is eminently versed in disputa- 
tion." ^ They are cautioning the Professor of Scrip- 
ture against using disputation at all, lest he come 
thereby to relinquish his own eloquent style of com- 
mentary. Por every chair has its own character; and 
that which the Ratio Studiorum of 1599 attributes to 
the chair of Scripture includes, among a number of 
qualifications, this one, which is mentioned in the 
last place, that, " as far as possible, the Professors be 
well versed in eloquence."^ 

1 Nihil perfecte scitur, nisi dente disputationis feriatur ; see the 
Life and Labors of St. Tliomas of Aquin, by Bede Vaughan, 1871, 
vol. i, ch. 16, p. 388. The two chapters on Paris, in this learned work, 
are replete with information pertinent to our subject. 

2 Mouumenta Germanise Pajdagogica, vol. v, p. 71, n. 5 ; De Scrip- 
turis. 

3 Reg. Prov., n. 5; Monumenta Germanise Pfedagogica, vol. v, p. 
234. 208 



DISPUTATION. DICTATION. 209 

On tlie other hand, in the proper arena of disputa- 
tion, they caution Professors against its abuse. Tak- 
ing note, in one place, of the discord which can arise 
among learned men, they illustrate their point Avith 
some instances, taken precisely from a disputatious 
tendency, from that exaggerated scholasticism which 
had run into dialectic excesses. They say: "For the 
disturbance of harmony, it makes very little difference 
whether discord arises in great things or in little. 
It is not only the importance of a question, it is also 
the spirit of emulation, that fosters contention ; so that 
sometimes a Avar of words and the bitterest altercation 
is kept up on a single term and phrase. Forsooth, 
what is more trivial than to ask Avhether God is in 
imaginary space? Yet Avhat tragic scenes does not 
this very question give rise to ! " ^ 

Excesses of this kind being guarded against, the 
Fathers lay doAvn the thesis that, when employed in 
its proper place, no exercise is more useful than dis- 
putation. You will see not a few Avholly taken up 
with reading, writing, arranging, and paging Avhat 
they have Avritten ; but they escheAv most carefully all 
disputation, neglecting it, looking upon it as an idle 
occupation, having all their Theology locked up, not 
so much in their memory and intelligence, as in their 
paper books. Men of authority, they go on to say, 
have always been persuaded that Philosophy and 
Theology are learnt, not so much by hearing, as by 
discussing. For, in this exercise, you have a most 
certain test how much a man understands of what he 

1 Commentariolus, Monumenta Germaniae Paedagogica, vol. v, 
p. 53. 



210 LOYOLA. 

is writing about or teaching; also how much solidity 
there is in one's own private cogitations, since it 
happens not unfrequently that what appears brilliant 
in one's private room is seen to drag in the mud, 
when it comes to disputation.^ Then, too, while we 
are hard pressed by our adversary, we are forced to 
strain every nerve of our wits, and, when others are 
bearing down heavily upon us, we knock out of our 
brains many things which would never have come 
into our heads, while we stayed in the quiet of leisure 
and rested in the shade. We hear things which others 
have found out, and which either throw light on 
doubtful points, or indicate the path to some other 
point. Or, if what is said does not commend itself 
to our judgment, we see through the opponent's arti- 
fice ; we meet him with more facility, and establish 
our own thesis with more stability. The auditors, 
meanwhile, can take note of the good points one Pro- 
fessor makes, the strong points of another, and, after 
the example of their Doctors, they quicken their wits 
for the fray, observing where the arguments limp, 
which are the distinctions that tell, how the whole 
doctrine of a Professor hangs together. In short, it 
is well established by the authority of the gravest 
men, and by the test of experience, that one disputa- 
tion does more good than many lectures ; not to men- 
tion the other consideration, that there is nothing 
more calculated to render our schools illustrious, than 
making our students competent to win great approba- 

1 Cum non raro, quse splendescere videntur in cubiculo, sordeant 
in Scholasticis concertationibus. 



DISPUTATION. DICTATION. 211 

tion and applause, in public sessions and disputa- 
tions.^ 

These critics express tlieir mind upon tlie need 
which exists, of reviving considerably the fervor and 
dignity of this exercise, and so restoring it to its 
former educational influence. But we can observe for 
ourselves, how congenial an element the whole exercise 
must be in a system like this, which is preeminently 
oral — oral examinations, oral and self-reliant defence 
and attack, free and open lecturing, with the influence 
of eye, voice, and person, to bring everything home, 
even though all the Avhile there is no question of 
oratory, but of mere teaching. In the earlier stages, 
too, of the scholar's life, however much has been made 
of the acquirement of style, " forging the word with 
Grammar, " as Eobert of Sorbon had said, " and polish- 
ing it with Ehetoric," to make it glow on the written 
page, yet from the very first, also, no less account has 
been taken of the ability to express one's thought, 
with perfect presence of mind, without depending upon 
note or book. In the higher faculties, this holds good 
more than ever. Xow the time has come for matter 
of the most approved kind. And the independent, 
self-possessed delivery of one's thoughts, with the 
power to force them home unto conviction, or to 
maintain them against all odds, appears not only as 
the scope proposed in the system, but also as the his- 
torical result, effected in the public career of the 
Order. 

1 Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. v, Disputationes, n. 8j 
p. 102. 



212 LOYOLA. 

Father Laynez, at the Conference of Poissy, con- 
tended thus with Peter Martyr and others ; Possevino 
at Lyons with Viret, using, not so much the severe 
syllogistic form, as copious and learned discussion. 
Maldonado was double-handed, either syllogistic or 
discursive. In the Conference at Sedan, in J 572, he 
argued first in dialectic form; then, on the demand 
of his opponents for a different kind of weapon, he 
took with the same facility to discursive exposition. 
Edmund Campian, in England, on being removed 
from the rack more dead than alive, was immediately 
brought face to face with Newell and Day, able cham- 
pions as well of the Queen's spiritual supremacy, as 
of the doctrine of Justification by Faith alone. He 
proceeded to argue : " If faith alone justifies, it justi- 
fies without charity; but without charity it does not 
justify; therefore faith alone does not justify." Now 
for the answer, clear and incisive as the propositions. 
Deny or distinguish major or minor proposition, if 
you want to deny the conclusion; for, those premises 
standing, the inference remains intact, since the syl- 
logism is perfect in form. And so argumentations 
proceed. 

To revive disputation in its best style, the critics 
devote several pages to a most valuable analysis of 
the conditions and method of the exercise.^ Their 
suggestions are embodied in the final Ratio. The 
Rectors are to show their lively and active interest in 
the disputations, by attending on public and private 
occasions alike, and by the various arts which such 
interest will inspire. As argument " freezes except in 
1 Ibid. 



DISPUTATION. DICTATION. 213 

a crowd," the critics require that the attendance of all 
be insisted on, when the days and hours of disputa- 
tion arrive. This susceptibility of human nature, 
which the Fathers touch upon, when they speak of 
disputation freezing except in a concourse, is not 
without an exact counterpart, when, in another con- 
nection, they are speaking of the humanists, or Pro- 
fessors of the literary classes. There they adopt the 
view that the literary seminary of the Province 
should be in the same great college, along with the 
faculties of Philosophy and Theology; for, say they, 
among other reasons, " the humanists would languish 
in obscurity, if they had not the philosophers and 
theologians to be witnesses, spectators, and applaud- 
ing auditors of their literary achievements." And 
again they plead sympathetically, "the philosophers 
and theologians, when composing the prefatory essays 
for their disputations, call for the taste of the hu- 
manists, by whose verses and orations, moreover, they 
are refreshed from time to time."^ 

Continuing their remarks, the Pathers define the 
limits of the weekly disputations to be two hours, not 
more, assigning four regular objectors for that time. 
The Professors, belonging to different faculties, should 
invite one another reciprocally to the private disputa- 
tions in their classes, at least for an hour or so, that 
the intellectual contest may wax warm by the meeting 
of these Doctors. Other Doctors, too, not of the 
faculty, can be invited for the same purpose. But, 
continues the Ratio of 1599, in undertaking to push 
the arguments which are being urged, "they should 
1 Ibid., p. 147, Separandane sint Semiuaria, etc. 



214 LOYOLA. 

not take tlie thread out of the hands of an objector, 
who is still ably and strenuously following it up."^ 
Meanwhile, the students who receive the commission 
to act as objectors, on occasions of some publicity, 
must be the more qualified members of the course; 
the others have the practice of their private arena, 
until they can take part with dignity in a public 
tournament. 

If argument freezes except in a crowd, so, too, it 
palls, if it never comes to a conclusion; and no useful 
point of doctrine is carried away by the listeners. 
Truth is lost in clouds, and there is no gain to good 
humor. Acrimony or melancholy may well be the 
only outcome of an unfinished or revolving argu- 
mentation. It will not revolve, if the disputants 
keep to strict syllogistic form. But when both or all 
parties become heated, and wit becomes lively, the 
syllogism may suffer, and then, when will they 
finish? To obviate this inconvenience, two persons 
are charged with the responsibility of the perform- 
ance, one the Professor himself, who is presiding over 
his own disputation, the other, the G-eneral Prefect 
of Studies, who controls the whole series of disputa- 
tions, as they follow one another in turn. 

Of the Professor it is said, that he is to consider 
the day of disputation as no less laborious and useful 
than that of his own lecture; and that all the fruit 
and life of the exercise depends upon him. The 
earlier Ratio lays even more stress upon the private 
disputations, "which are wont to grow more frigid 

1 Reg. coram. Prof. sup. lac, n. 16; Monumenta Germanise Psed- 
agogica, vol. v, p. 292. 



DISPUTATION. DICTATION. 215 

than the public ones." He is to assist the two dis- 
putants, " so as to be himself apparently the person 
contesting in each; let him signify his approval, if 
anything specially good is urged, excite the attention 
of all when any first-class difficulty is proposed, throw 
out a hint now and then to support the respondent or 
direct the opponent; call them back to strict syllogis- 
tic form, if they wander from it; not always be silent, 
nor yet be always talking, so as to let the students 
bring out what they know. TMiat is brought forward, 
he can amend or improve; let him bid the objector 
proceed, so long as his argument carries weight with 
it; carry on the objector's difficulty for him farther; 
nor connive at it, if he slips off to another track. He 
is not to allow an argument which has been well an- 
swered to be kept up, nor an answer that is not solid 
to be long sustained ; but, w^hen the dispute has been 
sufficiently exhaustive, let him briefly define the mat- 
ter, and explain it." ^ 

The General Prefect of Studies is required to keep 
the series of disputations in due form; arguing him- 
self but sparingly, and thereby discharging the duty 
of general direction with more dignity. He is not to 
suffer any difficulty which comes under debate, to be 
agitated this way and that, "so that it remains as 
much of a difficulty after as before " ; but when such 
an agitated question has been sufficiently mooted, he 
will see that an accurate explanation of it is given by 
the Professor who is presiding.^ 

1 Monumenta Germanise Psedagogica, vol. v, p. 292; Rt. St. 1599, 
Reg. comm. Prof. sup. fac, n. 18; Rt. St. 1586, Disputatioues, ibid., 
p. lOG. 2 Ibid., p. 102, n. 7; p. 276. n. 6. 



216 LOYOLA. 

With the last public act, or general defence of 
Philosophy and Theology, the formation of the fu- 
ture Professor closes. This public defence occupies 
four or five hours, in two sessions. If the defendant 
is not a member of the Order, special care is taken 
to honor it with all solemnity, and with the at- 
tendance of all the faculties, of guests invited. Doc- 
tors from without, and princes or the nobility.^ This 
act will be followed by the solemnity of conferring 
the final degree upon the Licentiate. When the stu- 
dent is a Jesuit, much more is made of thoroughness 
in a searching examination then, as at all times pre- 
viously. He has now passed through a long series of 
yearly examinations, which were almost always dis- 
putations, and that, not with equals, but with four or 
five Professors.^ So that, on viewing him at the 
close of his formation, we are enabled to conceive, 
with more distinctness, the meaning of that standard, 
"surpassing mediocrity," which, in a former chapter, 
I endeavored to define.^ 

2. On turning our attention now to the Professor's 
chair, and examining his manner of lecturing, of ex- 
plaining, of teaching, whether in the field of Letters, 
Science, Philosophy, or Theology, we have, on the one 
side, to suppose him complete in his formation, and, 
on the other, to regard the scholar as undergoing 
formation. Here, then, we begin the second part of 
this analysis. The style of teaching and of manage- 

1 Rt. St., Reg. Prof. Stud., nn. 12, 21; Monumenta Germanise Pseda- 
gogica, vol. V, pp. 278, 282. 

2 Ibid., Reg. Prov., n. 19, p. 244. 
8 Chapter xi, above, p. 157. 



DISPUTATION. DICTATION. 217 

ment, which is distinctively the Jesuit type, is pre- 
sented in the Ratio Studiorum under its practical 
and ideal aspect. There is also a manner of instruc- 
tion which is not considered an ideal method, however 
much it may sometimes recommend itself as practi- 
cally expedient. I will touch upon this latter, the 
negative side of the question, first, to be free, in the 
next chapter, for approaching the matter on its posi- 
tive and constructive side. 

In putting dictation down as not being the ideal 
form of teaching in the Society, I do not speak of the 
proper use of dictation. The Ratio itself leaves room 
for it. It is the abuse of dictation that merits and 
receives a protracted examination of its value, at the 
hands of the critics. The discussion is of the highest 
importance. In analyzing a style of instruction, with 
which they are not in harmony, they bring out the 
essential elements of all true teaching. And, if we 
approve at all of their principles, the implied disap- 
proval for the rejected form becomes only aggravated, 
on contemplating an exaggerated development of the 
same ; that is to say, when, instead of dictating what 
has the merit of being one's own laborious produc- 
tion, the teacher is seen to become the servile de- 
pendant on a text-book printed by somebody else; 
and neither does the teacher show any of the qualifi- 
cations necessary to have composed the book, nor does 
the scholar expend the industry which would have 
been necessary to copy it. But it is left to speak as 
best it may, is read by the teacher, instead of his 
teaching, is read by the scholar as the talk of some 
third person, and is found, in the last issue, to have 



218 LOYOLA. 

spoken just articulately enough for tlie pupil to have 
learnt a memory lesson, and perhaps to have gathered 
information wliich may or may not adhere to his 
mental structure. But, as to anything like mental 
training, or what is properly education, the final re- 
sult of a long series of years seems to show that, if 
there has been any of it, possibly the man who y^^rote 
the book had it; and with him it has remained. So 
must it always be under such conditions. For when 
the living Master has contributed so little in the way 
of live education, the scholar must, of necessity, go 
away with somewhat less. 

These critics say trenchantly: "Let no dictation 
be given, unless the explanation of very much all 
that is dictated has gone before, or accompanies, or 
follows the dictation; where the custom does not 
exist, let no dictation be introduced; where it does, 
an effort should be made to do away with it, as far as 
possible." Then they support their position by many 
quotations from the Constitution of Ignatius.^ 

They go on to state that this habit of dictating was 
a thing unheard of till within the last forty years ; 
"yet the auditors were not less learned then than 
now." In fact, but a slight acquaintance with the 
old university system of Europe will show how jeal- 
ously the empire of the spoken word was maintained 
— the spoken word, as distinct, not only from reading 
what the Doctor had himself composed, but also from 
consulting even notes, while actually lecturing. He 
might have the text of Aristotle, or Peter the Lom- 

1 De Ratione et Modo Prselegendi ; Monumenta Germanise Pfeda- 
gogica, vol. V, p. S2. 



DISPUTATION. DICTATION. 219 

bard, before him; lie might himself have written and 
published works; the student might, with permis- 
sion, take down notes in shorthand, from which 
in part, but chiefly from memory, he would com- 
mit the whole lecture to writing,^ on his return from 
school. It was not mere want of facilities that de- 
termined the system so. But the objective point was, 
not to have learning in one's papers and bound up ; 
still less to have it in books, bought for the learning 
that is in them, and left afterwards with the learning 
still remaining there. The object was to make learn- 
ing one's personal possession, and to profess the live 
mastery of it, with voice, eye, and person showing 
how live it was. 

These Doctors continue: ^'The common impression 
in men's minds is, that dictating is not lecturing; 
also that it is one thing to write after the manner of 
polishing off a treatise, a different thing to have at 
hand merely some brief heads and references. And, 
should the matter which is dictated be from some 
author, the labor of taking it down is superfluous." 

The living voice actuates the mind more ; it ex- 
presses, it impresses; it arouses, suspends the atten- 
tion; it explains. All these effects are nowhere in a 
dead-and-alive dictation. 'Nov do they give satisfac- 
tion, who append the explanation afterwards; for 
then both times seem to be lost, that taken up with 
dictation and that with the explanation. First, 
while the dictation was going on, the auditors were 
intent upon writing rather than understanding ; partic- 
ularly as, before the end of a sentence is come to, the 
1 Ad literam legibilem. 



220 LOYOLA. 

beginning of it has already slipped from the mind; 
and the writing has to go on, without allowing any 
of that time to breathe, which is frequent enough if 
the Professor lectures and explains. Secondly, when 
the time for explanation comes after the dictation, the 
students are tired; they think they have all their 
learning now, doAvn in their papers ; so they go off, 
or they yawn, or they read over their copy, to see if 
anything is wanting. 

After dictating, the Professor thinks that he has 
now done his part. What follows, that is, the work 
of explaining, he gulps down, as best he can, — a 
laborious work, requiring memory, promptitude, 
facility of development, fluency of speech; whence 
he will gradually vanish away into a nonentity, as 
we see actually taking place in some universities. 

More time is lost. For, Avhile he goes over his 
dictation to explain it, he has to take up again things 
which were clear enough, in order to follow out the 
whole thread of his matter. If he had lectured, he 
would have said those things once for all. Then, 
since it must be something polished and finished in 
style that a man dictates, the poor scribes have to 
take down much that is not necessary. 

As if they had wearied themselves with this general 
assault on dictation, the Fathers go on to relieve their 
feelings by exclaiming: "What an amount of tedium 
meanwhile to those who are not writing, especially to 
Prelates and other illustrious persons present! Must 
they be told not to come wdiile the dictation is going 
on, and to appear only afterwards when the matter is 
being explained? If so, they will be in attendance 



DISPUTATION. DICTATION. 221 

barely half an hour, and what they will hear will be 
meagre enough; and the person they listen to will be 
one accustomed to languid dictation, one who relies 
on his papers, and is but little practised in the oral 
development of his thoughts. Besides, the students 
themselves ought to get accustomed to make things 
their own when they hear them, and to exercise their 
own judgment in selecting what to write. Thus they 
will understand things better, and be kept more on 
the alert." 

Not to disguise inconveniences, from whatever side 
they come, these critics take note of the difficulties 
which are thought to exist; that, unless the matter is 
dictated, the students cannot do justice to it, that the 
lecturer is too quick, or, out of the many things he 
says, they do not know how to select the necessary 
elements for annotation; and, while phrase is piled 
upon phrase, they are at a loss, their notes are disor- 
dered, inept, and sometimes simply wrong. 

To this the critics promptly make answer : Those 
who are to lecture in future are either such as are 
now beginning their career of Professorship, or such 
as are long accustomed to dictation. For those who 
are uoav beginning, previous exercise is to be recom- 
mended in the most approved form of lecture, or 
prcelectio. And they sketch the form. As to the 
others who are long habituated to dictating, the 
critics ask such Professors to give this form of lec- 
turing the benefit of a trial. If they despair of being 
able to adopt it, let them go their own way, until 
another generation of Professors is ready to take their 
places. Dictation can also be permitted, where our 



222 LOYOLA. 

Professors liave often tried to give it up, but with the 
consequence that the students took fright, and aban- 
doned the classes. ''Yet," continue the Fathers, 
" they would not be apt to abandon the courses, nor 
complain so much, if all the Professors would devote 
themselves to brilliant lecturing, ^ and would put away 
dictation. For, if one dictates and nurses the lazy 
folks, and another does not, who doubts but that 
sloth will still be dearer to the slothful than the 
labors and thorns of study? Yea, by dictation they 
are made daily more and more lazy, so as to be always 
asking for more and more time ) whereas, without dic- 
tation, they become daily more prompt, and need less 
time for everything. " ^ 

The final Ratio of 1599 embodies these sugges- 
tions, without being absolute in excluding all dicta- 
tion, for which it suggests the form most useful and 
in accord with the spirit of true lecturing. It depre- 
cates the dictation of what may be found in authors 
within reach of the students. "Let the Professor 
refer his hearers to those authors who have been copi- 
ous and accurate in their treatment of any matter." 
As to what the critics of 1586 recommend, that, if 
dictation be given, the lecture should extend to five 
quarters of an hour, the Ratio says nothing about it.^ 

Possevino, in his Bibliotheca Selecta, has a chapter 
on this question, " Whether mental culture suffers by 

1 Ad praelegendura egregie. 

2 Rt. St. 1586, De Ratione ac Modo Praelegendi ; Monumenta Ger- 
maniae Psedagogica, vol. v, pp. 81-5. 

8 Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. v> Reg. comm. Prof, 
sup. fac, nn. 9, 10, p. 288. 



DISPUTATION. DICTATION 223 

the dictation of lectures ? " He answers in the af- 
tirmative, and he speaks on the subject with his usual 
erudition. He refers to the Pythagorean ^' acoustic " 
disciples, who were never copyists, and not even talk- 
ers, until, by a prolonged silence for years, they had 
thought enough to be able to talk well, to put ques- 
tions, and make comments. He quotes the cynicism 
of Diogenes, about writing at the expense of true 
exercise. He notes the plan of Xeniades the Corin- 
thian , who gave a written compendium to the young 
people, but one so short that they had to have the 
best part of their learning in their heads. The So- 
cratic method was eminently one of living speech. 
And, as to Aristotle's "peripatetic" school, which 
was conducted while ivalking about the Lyceum, that 
was certainly neither in practice nor in principle 
favorable to writing. Coming to speak expressly of 
dictation and citing a pleasant old rhjane : — 

Quod si charta cadat, secum sapientia vadat,i 

Possevino goes on to plead for the chests of the stu- 
dents, and says that the ink is the price of their blood, 
and the end of their studies becomes the end of their 
lives. Hence one singular result of it all is, that 
scholars even employ amanuenses to go to school 
instead of themselves, and bring back in writing 
what was said. But all that money, says Possevino, 
could have been reserved for the buying of books, to 
supplement real study. 

Then he enforces what he has said with a piece of 
university history, wherein perhaps no one of his time 

1 Why, if the paper drops, the wisdom too must be off I 



224 LOYOLA. 

was better versed. The University of Paris, two and 
a half centuries before, had legislated against dictat- 
ing, and against the Doctors who used it, and who 
were dubbed Nominatores ad pennayn. One century 
before, the Cardinal Legate had again formulated a 
law on the subject. And finally the Jesuits, "of 
whom a great number are chiefly engaged in this pro- 
fession, taught by experience the evils of that system, 
have long understood the necessity, not merely of mod- 
erating it, but simply doing away with it. Wherefore 
the Fathers in the universities of Portugal have 
already published a part of Natural Philosophy, 
whereby writing is dispensed with, room is left for 
quickening genius, and much material stored up to 
bring into the arena of discussion." ^ 

1 Possevinus, Biblioth. Selecta, lib. i, de cultura ingeniorum, cc. 
25-G ; edit. Venet. 1603, pp. 21-2. He refers to tlie publication of the 
Conimbricenses, a consolidated work of the faculty of Coimbra, just 
as the " Wirceburgenses," later on, and at present, under Father 
Cornely, the writers of the Cursus Scripturae Sacrse are publishing 
their works as a corporate whole. 



CHAPTER Xy. 

FORMATION OF THE SCHOLAR. SYMMETRY OF THE 
COURSES. THE PRELECTION. BOOKS. 

What is developed to perfection can make other 
things like unto itself; it is prolific. So the Aristo- 
telian principle has it: Perfectum est, quod general 
simile sihi. This is the outcome and test of perfection. 
Having followed the Master, therefore, till he was 
complete in his own formation, we have now turned 
to look in another direction, and see him reacting upon 
those whom he is to form. Though much has been 
said already^ implicitly or otherwise, on the method 
and principles of this reactive process, 3^et some- 
thing remains, especially with regard to the lower 
faculties, the literary courses. In this chapter, 
we may consider the attitude which the Professors 
take, singly and as a body, towards the students and 
towards their own courses ; and then their chief man- 
ner of imparting knowledge, or what is called in the 
Ratio the prcelectio. In the next chapter we can 
survey the principal class exercises, and the method 
of school management, throughout the lower grades. 
And, in the chapter after that, I shall sketch the 
system of grades from the lowest to the highest. 

1. One of the first most general rules lays it down 
that the authority, in whose hands is the appointment 

225 



226 LOYOLA. 

of Professors, " should foresee far ahead what Profes- 
sors he can have for every faculty, noting especially 
those who seem to be more adapted for the work, who 
are learned, diligent, and assiduous, and who are zeal- 
ous for the advancement of their students, as Avell in 
their lectures (or lessons) as in other literary exer- 
cises."^ "They are to procure the advancement of 
each of their scholars in particular," says Ignatius.- 
The Professor " is not to show himself more familiar 
with one student than with another; he is to disre- 
gard no one, to foster the studies of the poor equally 
with the rich."^ 

These are the regular and "ordinary Professors, 
who take account of their students in particular." ** 
There can also be in a university one or more of 
another kind, "who, with more solemnity than the 
ordinary lecturers, treat Philosophy, Mathematical 
Sciences, or any other branch, after the manner of 
public Professors."^ 

In the lower, or literary courses the Masters must 
" be good and skilled, ' ' who ' ^ seriously, and with all the 
attention of their mind, v\'^ork for the advancement of 
their scholars, as well in what concerns learning, as in 
the matter of morals. They will have to take care that 
besides the Christian doctrine, which is so integral a 
part of our Institute, they also give frequent exhorta- 
tions, suited to the capacity of the boys, and not 

1 Et. St. 1599, Reg. Pro v., n. 4; Monumenta Germanise Pseda- 
gogica, vol. V, p. 234. 

2 Constitutiones, pars iv, c. 13, n. 3 ; Monumeuta Germaniae Pseda- 
gogica, vol. ii, p. 55. 

2 Reg. comm. Prof. sup. fac, n. 20; Monumeuta Germaniae Pseda- 
gogica, vol. V, p. 292. •* Constitutiones, ibid., C. ^ Ibid. 



FORMATION OF THP: SCHOLAR. 227 

devised for empty ostentation; let them endeavor to 
instil solid affections of piety and love for the things 
of God, and a hatred for sin. " ^ 

AVhat is meant by " good and skilled Masters " in 
these courses, we have already seen from Jouvancy's 
sketch of the accomplishments proper to a teacher of 
Literature.^ If anything remained to be said on this 
topic, it would only be to note and reject false 
standards, by which the position or efficiency of Pro- 
fessors might possibly, but incorrectly, be measured. 
Thus, some five years ago, that is to say, three hun- 
dred years later than the drawing up of the Ratio, I 
find two such false standards distinctly repudiated; 
one is the idea of gathering in just enough of doctrine 
beforehand to be able, when occasion calls for it, to 
develop the attainments of a Professor; another is 
that which would look only to the environment 
around, and would measure the intellectual formation 
of men, and the supply of learning, by the estimate 
commonly formed of the article, and the actual de- 
mand for it. 

2. If we regard not individual Professors, but the 
whole moral body or faculty of them, there are two 
characteristics which it may be difficult to find, or at 
least to ensure, outside of an organization such as the 
Society of Jesus. One is the very strict unity of 
educational matter presented to the studious world. 
The other is the degree of coordination and subordi- 
nation of courses professed. A word upon each. 

The unity of matter in question, as designed for 

1 Yitelleschi, 1639; Monumeuta Germanise Pfedagogica, vol. ix, 
p. 59. 2 Chapter xi, above, p. 162. 



228 LOYOLA. 

the purposes of education, is prescribed on the strength 
of a double maxim; first, that the sifting of many 
opinions, by the varied and multiplied activity of 
many minds, leaves a residue of matter, quite solid 
enough to support a compact and reliable system of 
teaching ; secondly, that, in point of fact, such matter, 
which I have called "a residue," is nothing else than 
the basis of truth, divine and eternal ; since, in clear- 
ing away the ground, all the criteria of each order, 
the natural and supernatural, have been faithfully 
and assiduously regarded. 

Hereupon, intellectual concord is felt to be the 
result in the entire teaching body. Of this concord 
the critics say, that it is the condition and cause of 
a wider and profounder learning in the faculties at 
large. Each Professor is engaged, "not in tilling 
some patch of his own, but in contributing his in- 
dustry to the general field of all." Where is the 
gain, they ask, " if what one establishes, another up- 
sets, not as if he had always excogitated something 
better, but for fear he should be thought to profit by 
the fruits of another's genius? Sometimes it really 
makes no difference whether one or other tenet is 
held; but, if we are bent on receiving no support from 
another, then, for all our labor, we get no other fruit 
but dissension."^ I presume there is not a univer- 
sity anywhere but will bear witness, by its internal 
history, to the justice of this remark. 

Nor do these Fathers apprehend that reputation 
for real science will suffer by such concord, since 

1 Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. v, Commentariolus, p. 
43. 



FORMATION OF THE SCHOLAR. 229 

" reputation for science does not come from opinions 
contradicting one another, but from their having 
agreed." They express no lofty esteem for the no- 
toriety which may be had, by fighting no less with 
friends than with foes, and reserving admiration for 
only what is at a respectable distance, and "turning 
up one's nose at what is near." ^ This pungent remark 
seems to be a new and pedagogical application of the 
old proverb, Nihil vicinia molestius, "Nothing more 
annoying than one's neighbors!" They hold that, 
upon a basis of concord, there is always room and 
liberty for the exercise of talent; first, in those ques- 
tions which are manifestly indifferent; secondly, in 
thinking out new distinctions and reasons, whereb}' 
truths already certain may be made more secure still; 
thirdly, in attacking the same, either when publicly 
disputing, or also when actually teaching, if what 
they acutely urge against a position, they more acutely 
refute; fourthly, in proposing new opinions and ques- 
tions, but after they have sought the approval of the 
responsible authorities, lest the labor be spent amiss. 
The most learned men have always been persuaded 
that there is more subtlety shown, more applause 
merited and comfort enjoyed, in pursuing the lines 
of approved and received thought, than in a gen- 
eral license and novelt^^ of opinion.- But these 
critics throw out an idea of theirs, which quite pos- 
sibly will not meet with universal acceptance. The}^ 
say, "It is not every one vvdio can build up a The- 
ology for himself." The remark they add is grace- 
ful, that a modest genius does not court every 
1 Ibid. 2 Ibid., p. 41. 



230 LOYOLA. 

kind of liberty, but that which is not divorced from 
virtue. 

These principles explain for us the unity of educa- 
tional matter, as presented to the studious world. 
The same marshalling and husbanding of force, which 
effectuates this result, operates another, akin to the 
former. It is the most definite coordination and 
subordination of courses, with a mutual understand- 
ing between Professors and facuUies. Where grades 
exist, either in their perfect form, as in the five 
stages of the classical or literary coTirse, or in a shape 
approximating to that, as in the three stages of the 
philosophical triennium, such subordination is easily 
secured. But, also, elsewhere the conditions of per- 
fectly definite outlines are laid down for courses, 
which have any points of mutual contact. 

This may be illustrated by some rules of the Ratio. 
The two Professors of Dogmatic Theology are to 
consider themselves dispensed from commenting on 
(.questions proper to Sacred Scripture, from treating 
philosophical matters, from evolving cases of Moral 
Theology. The Professor of Moral Theology is to 
despatch with the briefest definitions the matter 
which belongs to dogma. The Professor of Holy 
Scripture is desired not to go at length into points of 
controverted Theology. The Professor of Ecclesias- 
tical History need not treat canons or dogma. The 
Professor of Canon Law will not touch Theology or 
Public Eight, any more than his time permits, and 
the necessary understanding of Canon Law requires. 
The same reserve is practised between Theology in 
general, and Philosophy. Thus a Professor of Moral 



FORMATION OF THE SCHOLAR. 231 

Theology despatches perhaps in ten minutes the defini- 
tion of I^^Tatural Law, upon which he knows two days 
are sjDent by the Professor of Moral Philosophy. 

Half a century later, this question of coordination 
received a still fuller treatment at the hands of the 
General Francis Piccolomini. After requiring that 
philosophers and theologians alike finish conscien- 
tiously all the matter assigned for each year, he will 
not allow that "the example of authors who have 
mixed up subjects, or have followed out their ques- 
tions into mere minutiae, can be cited as of any weight 
with our Professors. Por, whatever is to be thought 
of them, this method is not opportune for practical 
teaching in the schools." The General scouts the 
idea of "exploring the treasure-house of possibili- 
ties," to find out new questions; for there is reason 
to fear that " while folks search about for truths not 
ascertained, they will catch at chimeras and shad- 
ows."^ Hence, as the Ratio prescribes, "opinions 
which are useless, obsolete, absurd, manifestly false, 
are not to receive treatment." The Professors are to 
run rapidly through questions which are easy. In 
Holy Scripture, difficult passages are not to be dwelt 
on indefinitely, nor too much time to be given to 
chronological computations, or topological surveys of 
the Holy Land. 

In facing the objection, that all this entails a great 
expenditure of thought and matter, when Professors 
must despatch in such short courses Avhat might well 
be treated in longer terms, the preliminary Ratio 

1 Ordinatio pro Stud. Sup., 1651 ; Monnmenta Germaniae Pseda- 
gogica, vol. ix, p. 88. 



232 LOYOLA. 

draws a sharp line of demarcation between other uni- 
versities and those conducted by Jesuits. "Whatever 
is the custom in other universities, our method is 
very different from theirs, so that no less progress 
can be made in our schools during four years, than in 
others during five \ because our Professors are for the 
most part more laborious; we have more numerous 
exercises ; our Society, as standing in need of many 
workmen, requires that perfection of science which is 
necessary for its men, not that otiose method of others, 
who, having no motive of this kind to make them ex- 
peditious, divide up into many lectures what could 
well be treated in fewer; their vacations too are for 
the most part longer and more frequent." ^ 

Ex ungue leonem, "You can tell a lion by his paw." 
Let it appear that the brevity which you study is 
necessitated by your limits of time; let discernment 
be conspicuous in your selection of matter, whether 
to treat summarily or to treat coxDiously ; let the al- 
ternate courses supplement one another, so that 
what had to be skimmed over in one quadriennium is 
dilated upon more at large in your next; then, say 
the Fathers, the authority which the Professors enjoy 
with ecclesiastical dignitaries will not suffer the 
detriment anticipated by some, when we give con- 
densed and accurate treatment in a shorter time of 
what is usually spread out through a longer.^ The 
paw shows the lion. 

3. We may proceed now to the typical form of 
Jesuit instruction. It is called prcelectio. This word 

1 Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. v, Utrum Quinquen- 
nium, etc., p. 76. . 2 Ibid. 



FORMATION OF THE SCHOLAR. 233 

is largely the equivalent of "lecturing," in the higher 
faculties; of "explanation," in the lower. In either 
case, however, it is something specific. For this 
reason, and because I shall have to use the word 
often, I may be allowed to j)nt it in an English dress, 
and speak of "prelection." 

Its form, as a lecture in the higher faculties, is 
conceived thus: The whole proposition, Avhich is 
advanced, is to be delivered consecutively, without 
interposing any stoppages. Then it should be re- 
peated in the same words ; and this will be taken by 
the students as a sign that it is to be written down; 
and the delivery of it should be marked by such in- 
flections, and proceed at such a pace, especially in its 
obscure and finer points, that the students may readily 
distinguish between what is to be written and what 
is not. Now, while the proposition is thus being 
taken down, the lecturer ought not to advance new 
ideas, but should dally with the same, either explain- 
ing it in more phrases or clearer ones, or adducing an 
example or similitude, or amplifying the topic, or 
drawing out the same logical sequence in another 
order, so as to make it stand out more distinctly, or 
throwing out a reason or two, which, however, it is 
not necessary for them to note. Indeed, if the Pro- 
fessor brings his own papers into the school, he 
might have in them some select phrases, brief but not 
obscure, in which he sums up in few words the gist 
of the propositions. Longer development they will 
receive only in the explanation, which is then to be 
given. ^ In that, the Professor will endeavor to prove 

1 Modus Prselegendi, n. 10; Monumenta Germanifie P?edagogica, 
vol; V, p. 84. 



234 LOYOLA. 

liis thesis, not so mucli by tlie number of arguments, 
as by their weight. He should not be excessive in 
adducing authorities. And it belongs to his dignity, 
as a Master, scarcely ever to quote an author whom 
he has not himself read.^ 

In the grade of Rhetoric, which is the highest of 
the literary or classical course, the prelection is 
double; one is upon the art of eloquence, wherein 
precepts are explained; the other is upon an author, 
and has for its object the development of style. Tak- 
ing up an author such as Cicero, the Professor will, 
in the first place, make clear the sense of the passage. 
Secondly, the artistic structure is to be analyzed and 
demonstrated : the Ratio here details the elements of 
this analysis. Thirdly, other passages which are 
similar in thought or expression are to be adduced; 
other orators and poets, whether in the classics or 
in the vernacular, are to be cited as employing the 
same principles of art, in persuading or narrating. 
Fourthly, if the matter allows of it, the thoughts 
expressed by the author are to be confirmed by what 
wise men have said on the same subject. Fifthly, 
whatever else will conduce to ornamenting the pas- 
sage is here in place, from history, mythology, eru- 
dition of every kind. Finally, the words are to be 
weighed singly; their propriety of use, their beauty, 
variety, rhythm to be commented upon. The whole 
of this treatment, however, does not come within the 
limits of each and every lesson.^ The '' erudition '' for 

1 Rt. St. 1599, Reg. comm. Prof. sup. fac, nn. 7, 8 ; Mouumenta 
GermanifB Paedagogica, vol. v, p. 288. 

2 Rt. St., Reg. Prof. Rliet., u. 8; Mouumeuta Germaniae Paeda- 
gogica, vol. V, p. 406. 



FORMATION OF THE SCHOLAK. 235 

this grade is defined to comprise "tlie history and 
manners of nations, the authority of various writers, 
and all learning, but sparingly, to suit the capacity 
of the scholars." ^ 

The prelection on the precepts or rules, " the power 
of which, " says the Ratio, " is very great for the pur- 
poses of oratory," comprises six points. Cicero is 
the rhetorician who supplies the precepts ; but Quin- 
tilian and Aristotle may also be used. First, the 
meaning of the rule is to be explained. Secondly, 
upon the same rule, the rhetoricians are to be collated. 
Thirdly, some reason for the rule is to be expounded. 
Fourthly, some striking passages from prose writers, 
and also from poets, are to be adduced in exemplifica- 
tion of the rule. Fifthly, if anything in the way of 
varied erudition makes to the purpose, it is to be 
added. Lastly, an indication should be given how 
this principle of art can be turned to use by our- 
selves ; the style in which this is done must be marked 
by the most absolute choice and finish of diction pos- 
sible. - 

In the grade of Humanity, which is immediately 
below Khetoric, the prelection is to be lightly adorned 
from time to time with the ornaments of erudition, 
as far as the passage requires. The Master should 
rather expatiate to the fullest extent upon the genius of 
the Latin tongue, on the force and etymology of words 
as shown by approved authors, on the use and variety 
of phrases, with a view to imitation. Here, as in 
other rules of this kind, we may notice the degree of 
progress made in the native tongues during two cen- 
1 Ibid., n. 1. 2 Ibid., nn. 6, 7. 



236 LOYOLA. 

tnries and a half. While the Ratio of 1599 adds 
these words : " Kor let him think it out of his way to 
bring forward something from the vernacular, if it 
presents anything specially idiomatic for rendering 
the idea, or offers some remarkable construction ; " 
the revised Ratio of 1832 substitutes these words: 
"Let him expatiate on a comparison between the 
genius of both tongues, with a view to imitation. '- 
When he is explaining a prose author, he should in- 
vestigate the precepts of art, as exemplified therein. 
Lastly, if he thinks ht, he can give a version, but 
a most elegant one, of the whole passage into the 
mother tongue.^ Greek has its own form of prelec- 
tion. 

As to the " prose writer " just mentioned, the man- 
ner of treating an historical writer in Humanity, 
which is otherwise called the class of Poetry, will 
serve by the way to illustrate the difference between 
what is recognized as the staple of studies in a class, 
and what comes in as subsidiary — a most essential 
distinction, characterizing this system of literary 
teaching. The critics of 1586 advert to it clearly. 
After shoAving the importance of including the study 
of historians in the course of Poetry, they say: 
" This will not be too onerous to the Preceptor ; for 
the style of history is plainer and more lucid, so as 
not to need great study ; and it would be enough to 
explain the course of events, as they are narrated by 
the author, so that he need not consult other authors 
who have written on the same matter. The prelec- 
tion of the historian ought to be easy; after render- 
1 Reg. Prof. Hum., n. 5 ; ibid., p. 420. 



FOKMATION OF THE SCHOLAR. 237 

ing a sentence of the author, the words may be lightly 
commented upon, and only such as have some obscu- 
rity hanging about them." The historians of whom 
there is question here, are Caesar, Sallust, Q. Curtius, 
Justin, Tacitus, Livy.^ 

" In both classes of Ehetoric and Humanities, not 
everything indiscriminately is to be dictated and 
taken down, but only certain interpretations of dif- 
ficult passages, which are not readily obvious to 
every one, or which the Master has elaborated as the 
outcome of his personal study; besides, some rather 
striking remarks on various passages of the author 
under examination, such annotations as the commen- 
tators give, who edit books of various readings. This 
will befit the Master's dignity, and will be useful for 
the young men to know." - 

The grades of Grammar have respectively their 
own forms of prelection, given in detail by the final 
Ratio. It will be enough for us to sketch the general 
form of the earlier critics.^ 

According as it is a grammar or an author that is 
being explained, a very different method of prelec- 
tion is to be followed. In the grammar, we acquire a 
fund of precepts ; in an author, a store of words and 
phrases. Wherefore, in the books of grammar, the 
boys must understand perfectly the things explained; 
they need not attend scrupulously to the words there, 
with a view to forming style. But, in the letters of 

1 Rt. St. 1856, Classis Hum.; Monumenta Germanise Psedagogica, 
vol. V, p. 195. 2 Ibid., Class. Rhet., n. 6, p. 198. 

8 Ibid., Exercitationes lat. et graec, n. 2 ; Monumenta Germanise 
Psedagogica, vol. v, p. 166. 



238 LOYOLA. 

Cicero, and other texts of the kind, it is not so much 
the substance of the sentences, as the words and 
phrases that are of chief consequence; the significance 
and force of his thoughts are to be reserved for the 
higher classes, when the students are no longer mere 
boys. 

In the classes of Grammar then, let the Master 
follow this method of explaining Cicero, or any other 
author. First, he will sketch, in the briefest way, 
the meaning of the author, and the connection between 
what has gone before and what is now to be explained. 
Then he will give a version of the period literally, 
j)reserving to the utmost the collocation of words, as 
they stand in the author; and also the figures em- 
ployed. As to the collocation or arrangement of the 
words, this is of such consequence that sometimes, 
if a single word is put out of its place, the whole 
thought seems to lose its force and fall flat. Herein, 
too, is perceived that rhythmic flow of the style, which 
of itself, even if other ornaments are wanting, pleases 
the ear wonderfully and gratifies the mind. Thirdly, 
the whole period is to be resolved analytically into 
its structural elements, so that the boys understand 
distinctly what every word governs; and their atten- 
tion should be directed to some useful points of good 
Latinity. As to this structural analysis, I may be 
allowed the passing remark, which is familiar to every 
judge of a classical education, that the disciplinary 
value of literary studies reaches here its highest 
degree of mental exercise ; and that the two classical 
tongues, Latin and Greek, are altogether eminent as 
supplying materials for this exercise, in their OAvn 



FORMATION OF THE SCHOLAR. 239 

native structure ; which, in the Latin, is an architec- 
tural build, characteristic of the reasoning Eoman 
mind; and, in the Greek, is a subtle delicacy of con- 
ception and tracery, reflecting the art, the grace and 
versatility of Athens and the Ionian Isles. 

After this, each word is to be examined, as to 
what it signifies, and to what uses it may be applied; 
the boy is to understand, as far as may be, the original 
and proper idea and force of every word, not merely 
its general significance, as in a shadowy outline ; he 
should know, too, the phrases in his native tongue, 
which correspond with precision and propriety to the 
Latin. The metaphors and the figurative use of 
words, especially as found in Cicero, are to be ex- 
plained to the boys in an extremely plain manner,^ 
and by examples drawn from the plainest objects. 
Unless this use of words is understood, the true and 
genuine knowledge of the tongue is seriously ob- 
structed. Then, picking out the more elegant turns 
of style, the Master will dictate them to the scholars, 
and afterwards require the use and imitation of these 
phrases in their themes. Lastly, he will go back 
and translate the words of the author over again, as 
he did at the beginning ; and, if need be, do so a third 
and a fourth time. 

As to writing, during aM this, let him forbid them 
absolutely to take down a single letter, except Avhen 
told. What he does dictate to them, he is to finish 
within the time of the prelection, and not prolong 
this time for the sake of the writing. It happens 
now and then that, with much labor, waste of time, 
1 Maxime rudi Minerva. 



240 LOYOLA. 

and to no good purpose whatever, the boys take down, 
and preserve with diligence, a set of notes which have 
not been thought out very judiciously nor been ar- 
ranged very carefully, — notes simply trivial, com- 
mon, badly patched together, sometimes worse than 
worthless ; and these notes they commit to paper, in 
wretched handwriting, full of mistakes and errors. 
Therefore, let the dictation be only of a few points, 
and those extremely select. 

The Masters are to be on their guard, lest private 
tutors at the boys' homes explain new lessons to them. 
These tutors have merely to repeat with the boys 
what has been heard in class. Otherwise, the fruit 
of the good explanation which is received at school is 
lost at home. 

Eepetition is now in order. Two principles govern 
this exercise. First, " what has often been repeated 
sinks deeper into the mind. " ^ Secondly, " the industry 
of youths flags under nothing so much as satiety."^ 
As soon, therefore, as the prelection is over, the Pro- 
fessor is to require at once an account of all that he 
has said, and he is to see that the whole line of his 
explanation is followed in the repetition. As if this 
seemed to imply that only the best scholars were to 
be called upon, the critics go on to note that not all 
of what has been explained should be repeated by one 
only, but that as many as possible should be practised 
every day. The Master should not follow the order 
in which the boys are seated, but take them here and 

1 Rt. St., Reg. Prsef. stud, inf., n. 8, §4; Monumenta Germanise 
Paedagogica, vol. v, p. 354. 

2 Ibid., Reg. comm. Prof. cl. inf., n. 24; ibid., p. 388. 



FORMATION OF THE SCHOLAR. 241 

there. However, the first to be called on are those 
more advanced; then the duller, or perhaps lazier 
ones , and these should rather be asked oftener, to be 
kept up to the mark. ^ 

The final Ratio notes that the daily lesson should 
not exceed four lines in the lowest class of Grammar; 
seven in Middle Grammar. There is, as I have 
already observed, a prelection proper to grammatical 
rules ; also to Greek, whether it be in the grammar or 
in an author. Proportion in width and depth of 
matter is adjusted to each grade. A careful dicta- 
tion in the vernacular is to be given, which, when 
rendered into Latin or Greek, will exemplify the pre- 
cepts explained, or the use of the phrases already dic- 
tated. And one part of the school exercises, from the 
lowest class up to Khetoric, is a concertatio between 
rivals, which is a lively discussion either upon mat- 
ters explained in the prelections, or upon one another's 
compositions. In this field of debate, as is natural, 
the activity of the students grows, both in the extent 
of the field to be covered, and in the depth of erudi- 
tion required, according as the grades are mounted. 
And it is carried out of the class-room into select 
societies, called ^'academies," the members whereof, 
whether grammarians or litterateurs, conduct their 
debates, give their own prelections or repeat a choice 
one of their Professor's, award a place in the archives 
to some specially meritorious production; and they 
conduct all these exercises in exact keeping with 
their actual prelections and studies. Xor do they 

1 Exercitationes lat. et graec, Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, 
vol. V, p. 167. 



242 LOYOLA. 

yield an inch in gravity or dignity to the great 
academy of theologians and philosophers.^ 

As to the native tongue, one of the earliest systems 
of studies in the Society, prior to the general Ratio 
by about forty years, lays down for the middle class 
of Grammar, that " on Mondays and Wednesdays the 
boys will receive the themes in Bohemian and Ger- 
man for their epistolary exercises."''' This document 
is probably from the pen of Peter Canisius, soon 
after the colleges were founded at Prague, Ingolstadt 
and Cologne. In a directive memorial of 1602, drawn 
up for Mayence by Father Ferdinand Alber, a post- 
script is added to the effect, "Let exercise in the 
German tongue be furthered. " ^ Jouvancy lays down 
the practice in this manner: "After the correction 
and dictation of the written exercises, the Latin 
author is rendered into the mother tongue, or a con- 
certatio is held. These two exercises can be held on 
alternate days, if there is not enough of time every 
day for both. In rendering the author into the ver- 
nacular, you will observe three things : first, the idiom 
of the vernacular, and its agreement in construction 
with the Latin, or else its disagreement, so that the 
scholars learn each tongue by the other; secondly, 
the proper turns and elegance of the Latin style; 
finally, the thoughts of the author, as having a moral 
bearing, and as calculated to form and mould the 

1 Rt. St., Special rules of the respective classes ; Monumenta Ger- 
mauia Psedagogica, vol. v, pp. 398-448: Rules of the Academies; 
ibid., pp. 460-480. 

2 Monumenta Germanise Psedagogica, vol. ii, p. 106 ; Schulregeln 
urn 1560-61. 

3 Monumenta Germanise Psedagogica, vol. ix, p. 145. 



FORMATION OF THE SCHOLAR. 243 

judgment of the boys; also the ways of men, the 
punishments of the wicked, the maxims of sages. 
Some part of an historical author should be given 
sometimes for their Avritten exercise, to translate into 
the mother tongue ; or it may be added, as an appen- 
dix, to a shorter theme. Let the boys hold a dis- 
cussion among themselves upon the merits of the 
translation; they can write in that narrative style, to 
win the best places in class ; as also, at the close of 
the year, for the premiums. However, the whole 
time of class is not to be taken up by such transla- 
tions, as happens sometimes with negligent Masters, 
who shirk the labor of the prelection, and of the cor- 
rection of themes. While the boys dispute among 
themselves on the precepts of grammar, poetry, or 
eloquence, one stands against many, or several against 
several. The subject, time, and manner of the concer- 
tatio is to be defined beforehand; umpires and judges 
are to be appointed, prizes for the victors, penalties 
for the vanquished. The others, who are merely lis- 
tening during the contest, will show in writing what 
fruit they have derived from it, or will be asked 
questions thereupon. " ^ 

In the following article,^ the same writer gives 
several specimens of a prelection in Cicero, Yirgil, 
Phsedrus, as adapted to the different classes. They 
are only passages. The whole of this system goes by 
passages, taken consecutively, until a whole piece 
has been mastered by the students. For it is in the 
prior perfection of detail that xoerfection in a larger 

1 Jouvancy, Ratio Docendi ; c. De interpretatione vernacula, etc. 

2 Modus explicandse prselectiouis. 



244 LOYOLA. 

compass is attained. And we may also note that it 
is only in the original productions of perfect Masters 
in style, that detail can ever be adequately studied. 
The understanding and enjoyment of an entire master- 
piece, taken as a whole, is by every law of nature and 
of art an easy resultant of understanding the parts. 
If any writers on pedagogy have thought that no stu- 
dent could "understand and take pleasure" in an 
original classic, and therefore have advocated the 
reading of translations as a means of receiving the 
"literary impressions," I fear that we need only point 
to the style of literary writing which seems to have 
resulted from doing things in this second-hand fashion 
— if indeed it is even second-hand. For, after all, 
style itself never appears in a translation; only the 
thoughts are translated. Thoughts are the soul of 
style; its expression was the body; each fitted the 
other in the classic original; and, in an eminent mu- 
tual fitness, an eminent style was being studied. The 
best translation of a classic piece has never done more 
than produce a bare equivalent. Wherefore, if with 
the striking original no thorough work has been done, 
it is more than probable that, in the results, nothing 
original and striking will ever be done. 

This system of prelection, which in addition to the 
perfection of its teclinique, required erudition from 
every branch of learning,^ made of the Professor any- 
thing but a technical pedagogue. Voltaire noticed it, 
speaking of his own Professor. " Nothing will efface 
from my heart," he wrote to Pere de la Tour, Kec- 

1 Eruditio ex omni doctrina, Reg. Prof. Rhet., n. 1 ; ex omni eru- 
(Htione, ibid., n. 8. 



FORMATION OF THE SCHOLAR. 246 

tor of the College Louis-le-Grand, "the memory of 
Father Poree, who is equally dear to all that studied 
under him. Never did man make study and virtue 
more amiable. The hours of his lessons were deli- 
cious hours to us. And I should have wished that it 
was the custom at Paris, as it used to be at Athens, 
that one, at any age, could listen to such lectures. I 
should often go to hear them. I have had the good 
fortune to be formed by more than one Jesuit of the 
character of Pere Poree, and I know that he has suc- 
cessors worthy of him."^ 

The productions of such Professors replenished 
the literature of the classics, as we may see in the 
great editions, or bibliothecce dassicoe, published during 
the present century. Father De la Cerda of Toledo, 
in his three folio volumes on Virgil, in 1617, gave 
to literature an encyclopaedia of political and moral 
observations, including geography, history, and the 
natural sciences.- His technical work was not in- 
ferior; for his "Grammatical Institutions " became in 
1613, by an exclusive privilege, the standard of all 
the public schools in Spain. Father Nicholas Abram, 
whose " Epitome of Greek Precepts in Latin Verse ' ' 
went through fifty editions in twenty -two years, pub- 
lished in 1632, while Professor at the College of Pont- 
a-Mousson, two volumes octavo on Virgil, which were 
then republished constantly at Kouen, Paris, Tou- 
louse, Poitiers, Lyons, etc.^ Undertaking the same 

1 Lettre 7 fevrier, 1746; (Euvres, t. viii, p. 1127; edit. 1817. 

2 De Backer, Bibliotheque des Ecrivains de la Compagnie, sub 
voce, Cerda. 

3 Sommervogel, Bibliotheque de la Compagnie, sub voce, Abram. 



246 LOYOLA. 

labor, in behalf of Cicero, lie issued two volumes folio, 
" by which John George Grsevius profited in his edition 
of Cicero, Amsterdam, 1699; as well as the editor of 
Cambridge, whose work appeared in 1699, 1710, and 
1717." 1 Father De la Kue's (Carolus Euseus) Del- 
phin Virgil is a familiar work in France, Holland, 
England; so, too, De Meronville's Delphin edition of 
Cicero, which was often reproduced at Cambridge, 
London, Dublin, etc. The same we see with regard 
to Sanadon on Horace, Brumoy's great work on the 
Greek Drama, Eene Rapin's various critical and 
poetical works ; and so of the rest. Of Pere Eapin's 
thirty -live works, there are few which were not trans- 
lated into various European languages; and Oxford, 
London, Cambridge, have been among the most active 
centres of republication, or translation into English. ^ 

4. This chapter, Avhich has extended beyond the 
usual limits, cannot close better than with a word on 
books, a matter intimately connected with its subject. 
The Fathers of 1586 set down some principles with 
regard to the proper supply and use of books, as well 
as the expurgation of the classical standard works ; ^ 
and accordingly the Ratio of 1599 ordains that 'Hhe 
students are neither to be without useful books, nor 
to abound in useless ones."^ A multitude is consid- 
ered useless, because " it oppresses the mind, and in- 
terferes with the convenient preparation of the lesson. 
Of books by more recent authors few are to be allowed, 

1 Sommervogel, ibid. 2 De Backer, suh voce, Rapin. 

3 Rt. St. 1586, c. 8, De Libris ; Monumenta Germaniae Psedagogica, 
vol. V, p. 178. 

4 Reg. Prsef. Stud., n. 29; Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, p. 
284. 



FORMATION OF THE SCHOLAR. 247 

and those very carefully selected." Yet, "a variety 
of authors gives a richer vein to the boys, and makes 
imitation easier." ^ Here the Fathers proceed to give 
directions for the composition of an entirely new kind 
of work, which would be of great use in the colleges. 
It is exactly the species so well known in our days 
under the various titles of ^'Precepts of Ehetoric/' 
"Art of Composition/' etc. As the development of 
pedagogical literature, which we took note of in a for- 
mer chapter/ had already made some progress, the 
critics say : " Some one most versed in all these mat- 
ters should be deputed to gather whatever is best in 
this line, and to compile in one treatise, written in 
an elegant style, all that he has selected, about the 
art of writing epigrams, elegies, odes, eclogues, sylvm 
(that is, materials, "objects"), comedies, tragedies, 
epopoeise, a brief method of chronology; explaining 
also what is the historical (or narrative) style, the 
poetic, the epistolary, the different kinds of speaking, 
and other such matters, all to be illustrated by ex- 
amples." ^ Elsewhere they call for a similar work of 
a higher order, on the Art of Oratory. The sources 
which they designate for such a compilation are " the 
numerous publications of our Professors of Ehetoric, 
as well on the art itself, as on classical orations."^ 
These compendia, or text-books, were a new idea in 
education. 

1 Ibid., p. 179. 2 Ch. xi, above, p. 164 seq. 

3 Monuraenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. v, p. 180. 

4 Rt. St. 1586, Class. Rliet., pp. 197-8, 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE CLASSICAL LITERATURES. SCHOOL MANAGEMENT 
AND CONTROL. 

The subject of Literary Exercises and School Man- 
agement is treated in sncli a manner by the critics of 
1586, that justice could be done to it, only by tran- 
scribing, word for word, the several chapters of the 
preliminary Ratio. As that is impossible, within the 
limits of space remaining, I shall endeavor to trace 
the outline. 

1. There is one fundamental point, however, which 
should be touched on, to meet a latent query in the 
mind. It refers to the kind of education projected 
throughout. It is evidently not a special training 
which is contemplated; not the training of specialists, 
or technical students. All through the system, the 
field of pedagogical activity is that of a general 
culture; and, therefore, properly an education. The 
result aimed at is a general one, that of develop- 
ing in the young mind all fundamental qualities; of 
adjusting it, by the early development of all natural 
fitnesses, to any special work of thought and labor in 
the mature life of the future. It would lay a solid 
substructure, in the whole mind and character, for 
any superstructure of science, professional and special ; 
also for tlie entire building up of moral life, civil and 
248 



THE CLASSICAL LITERATURES. 249 

religious. That such a general culture should go 
before the special seems to be obvious. To supplant 
it by the special, or even to abridge the process, is 
not only to sacrifice the general culture ; it has a more 
serious effect than that. By a false economy, it 
cramps, curtails, and reduces to the smallest propor- 
tions whatever possibilities existed of general and 
special qualifications in the youthful mind. AVithout 
a broad, radical formation below, the amplitude of 
organic growth above must necessarily fall short; the 
roots underneath not having shot out, the develop- 
ment above is wanting in vigor, to ramify according 
to its environment, and use its opportunities. In a 
boy's mind, there is needed a suppleness of general 
powers, as only the young mind can be made supple, 
while at the same time it is preeminently apt to be 
general. It is what Seneca calls curiosum ingenium, 
*' an inquisitive genius, ' ' open to everything, and pry- 
ing to open everything. Memory is then at its flour- 
ishing stage, ready to be cultivated throughout the 
extent of a potential vastness, which will never again 
be experienced in life. If cultivated richly in its 
season, it will be capable afterwards of every kind of 
ready yield, according to its acquired tenacity, and 
according to the richness of the seed deposited in it. 
The imagination, too, is at the stage of impression- 
able and vital expansion, and is keenly sensitive to 
the lights and shades of objective life. These are 
either brought under its observation, or, better still, 
are pictured for it in beautiful literature; since the 
fine fancy of great minds paints nature, as nature 
herself is not found dressed at every one's door. The 



250 LOYOLA. 

opening judgment also is receptive of the thouglits 
and wisdom, which other minds have thought out and 
handed down, encasing it, as they did so, in a style 
worthy of their own vigor, and presenting it as the 
heritage of the past to the present, of the wise old 
age of the world to its youth, which may be wiser 
still. And thus in each individual youth, the judg- 
ment being tenderly nursed, and learning ripening 
with age, what was before in the memory passes 
gradually into the whole character and competency of 
the man. 

In the system which we are considering, the in- 
strument employed for working these effects is a lit- 
erature in the hands of a competent teacher; it is 
a great literature, and a double one. The great lit- 
eratures of Eome and Greece have always been con- 
sidered adequate instruments of universal culture. 
Under a literary aspect, the eloquence and poetry of 
Greece had been the mistress of Roman excellence. 
Under a philological aspect, the Latin tongue has 
been the principal basis of our modern languages, as 
formed in the history of Christendom. In both of 
them, the varied elements of richest thought are 
brought into contact with the undeveloped, but devel- 
oping nature of the youth ; glimpses of human life, in- 
dividual, social, and political, favor his inquiring eyes, 
and lead him to teel the finest springs of human senti- 
ment. Better still, he feels these springs as touched 
by the greatest masters of expression; and he con- 
ceives thought as rendered in a style worthy of the 
greatest thinkers; and that, in languages, one of 
them the most delicately organized, the other perhaps 



THE CLASSICAL LITERATURES. 251 

the most systematically elaborated, of all tongues 
living or extinct. And, besides, these two literatures 
come down to us, bearing in their own right what no 
other tongues can convey. Xot as translations, which, 
in their best form, exhibit only a respectable degree 
of mendicancy, and represent other men's living 
thoughts in a decent misfit, these two literatures 
come down to us bearing in their own right all the 
historic memories of antiquity, as w^ell sacred as pro- 
fane; all the masterpieces of eloquence and poetry, 
belonging to no less than two out of the very few 
great epochs, those of Pericles and Augustus; all 
human philosophy, from Socrates, Plato, and Aris- 
totle, down to St. Thomas Aquinas, and, further 
dowm, to Leibnitz and Newton, both of them men of 
classical letters ; in fine, all the traditions, the Faith, 
and Divinity of Christendom. 

To these considerations we may add one more 
characteristic of the classical literatures, as instru- 
ments in the class-room, and we shall have seen 
enough on our present topic, to understand the theory 
which underlies the Ratio Studiorum. These tongues 
are dead. They are not the language of common life. 
They are not picked up by instinct, and without 
reflection. Everything has to be learned by system, 
rule, and formula. The relations of grammar and 
logic must be attended to with deliberation. Thought 
and judgment are constantly exercised in assigning 
the exact equivalents of the mother tongue for every 
phrase of the original. The coincidence of construc- 
tion is too little, the community of idiomatic thought 
too remote, for the boy's mind to catch at the idea, 



252 LOYOLA. 

by force of that preestablislied harmony which exists 
among most modern tongues. Only the law of thought 
and logic guides him, with the assistance of a teacher 
to lead the way, and reassure his struggling concep- 
tion. 

And when, in the last instance, the boy comes to 
write and to speak the language so learned, and quick- 
ens it, though dead, with the very life of actual 
speech which makes modern languages live, we have 
the supreme test and proof of successful toil, that 
which consists in the power to reproduce. We have 
also the very specific advantage, in this case, that the 
toil has been of the most valuable kind; it has been 
personal labor, spent in the freshness of life on com- 
plete self-culture. For that great law of all success 
in life, personal labor, has been honored in the most 
remunerative way, by cultivating memory, exercising 
judgment, and acquiring in the same thoughtful, re- 
flective manner two languages together, Latin and 
the mother tongue, Greek and the mother tongue, 
each systematically helping the others by analogy 
and contrast. And, withal, what is more congenial to 
the young than letters, language, talk? 

As to the working of this Jesuit system, it is very 
much of a commonplace, in pedagogic history, that 
" a handsome style " was aimed at, and a handsome 
style was the outcome. The Scottish Professor, 
whom I quoted on a former occasion, states very ex- 
actly the value of this result. Speaking of the Struc- 
ture of Sentences, he says: "Logic and Rhetoric 
have here, as in many cases, a strict connection; and 
he that is learning to arrange his sentences with order, 



THE CLASSICAL LITERATURES. 253 

is learning to think witli accuracy and order; an ob- 
servation wliicli alone would justify all the care and 
attention we have bestowed on this subject."^ And, 
in another connection, he quotes, with the approval 
which it merits, the Eoman rhetorician's saying: 
Curam verborum, rerum volo esse sollicitiidinem, "I 
would have a sufficient care be given to the diction, 
but the thoughts must be the object of scrupulous at- 
tention. " 2 This latter principle, of diction first and 
matter afterwards, as translated into a process of 
educational development, assigns, in the Ratio, five 
grades, or seven years, more or less, to be spent on the 
acquirement of style, chiefly as to its body, or, if you 
like, its form; then two great courses of Science, 
natural and revealed, or Philosophy and Theology, 
for the acquirement of the same style, chiefly as to 
its soul, or, if you wish so to call it, the substratum 
of matter. Prom both together issues the thoroughly 
cultured man; as the well-known phrase has it: Le 
style c^est Vliomme, "A style is the man himself." 
And, if we have just had occasion to take notice that 
two of the great literary epochs of the world's history, 
those of Pericles and Augustus, are made present to 
us by the classical literatures, it is a subject of his- 
torical verification that a third great literary epoch, 
the age of Louis XIV, was created under the in- 
fluence of this system. 

The manner in which the critics of 1586 discuss the 
question of Greek shows the practical eye they kept 

1 Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres ; lecture XII, at 
the end. 

- Ibid., lecture XIX, On Forming Style, at the end. 



254 LOYOLA. 

on the requirements of actual life, and the conditions 
of concrete surroundings.^ Their conclusions are em- 
bodied in a rule of the Director or Prefect of Studies : 
" He should not grant an immunity, particularly for 
any length of time, from either versification or Greek, 
except for a grave reason." ^ 

Upon this theme there is a facetious touch in the re- 
port of the Upper German Province, which was sent 
to Father Aquaviva some three years after the final 
Ratio was published. The de]3uties say : " Some ask 
for an exemption from Greek and versification, in 
behalf of the older monks and nobles. But as the 
rule itself insinuates that an exception can be made, 
for a sufficiently grave cause, there is no need of a 
change. If we are facile in the matter, whether with 
monks or nobles, we shall end by eliminating Greek 
altogether. But, if one is seen to be altogether inept 
and incapable, the impossibility of the thing exempts 
him; for, if God himself does not enjoin impos- 
sibilities, why, neither should Ave impose Greek on 
such disciples." Father Aquaviva rex)lies, "That is 
correct."^ 

2. Under the head of Exercises, the preliminary 
Batio treats elaborately and minutely the literary di- 
rection of a class. The subjects are orthography, and 
all that pertains to it; the prelection, as explained 
before; the repetitions, daily themes, and the method 
of daily correction ; the recitation of lessons by heart ; 

1 Rt. St. 1586 ; Monumenta Germaniae Paedagogica, vol. v, pp. 160-4. 

2 Reg. Praef . stud, inf., n. 31 ; Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, 
vol. V, p. 364. 

3 Monumenta Germaniae Paedagogica, vol. v, p. 491. 



I THE CLASSICAL LITERATURES. 255 

parsing; and the speaking of Latin. Jouvancy gives 
the order of the daily class exercises. And he makes 
this reflection : Few things are to be taught in each 
class, but accurately, so that they remain in the 
minds of the boys; the teacher is to remember that 
these young intellects are like vases with a narrow 
oriiice, which waste the liquid, if it is poured in co- 
piously, but take it all, if it conies in by drops. ^ 

There are, besides, a number of aids to School 
Management. These are the division of the class 
into parties of ten apiece, or decurice; the exposition, 
once or twice a month, of some passage by a student, 
in the presence of invited friends; contests betvvxen 
rivals or parties; the delivery of an original piece or 
else an oratorical contest, every week; the exhibition 
or delivery of original poems ; the annual distribution 
of premiums; the use of the stage, when 'Hhe boys 
can produce some specimen of their studies, their 
delivery and powers of memory." The composition 
of the tragedy and minor drama devolves, as we saw 
before, upon the Professors of Ehetoric and Poetry. 

A general condition in the management of a class 
is absolute silence and attention. Besides, it belongs 
to the college programme to insure application, not 
only in school to class exercises, but out of school 
to private study, especially when holidays intervene. 
The usual weekly relaxations scarcely rise to the rank 
of "holidays." For the amount of time to be assigned 
in private study to composition and other work is 
part of the daily order, whether the students be 
alumni, day-scholars, or convictores, boarders. All 
1 Ratio Doceudi, c. ii, De discipulorum eruditione, art. 3. 



256 LOYOLA. 

must have enough to occupy them, " that the boys be 
deterred from roaming about to their hurt." The 
same applies to the ordinary intervals between school 
hours, " particularly, " say the Fathers, " on the days 
in summer, when there is much time in the early 
afternoon, before classes are resumed; and we hear 
the court-yard resounding Avith cries and noisy pas- 
times, hour after hour. " ^ 

Boys were the same genus then as now. It took 
all the efficacy of a benign firmness to control that 
element which tries the experience of every age. 
The German Fathers draw a graphic picture of these 
sixteenth century boys. They are commenting on 
the rule which requires the Prefect of Studies at the 
end of school to be on the ground and supervise. 
They write thus to Father Aquaviva : " Many object 
to this; but it seems reasonable. For, if somebody 
is not on hand, some one whom the scholars revere, 
then like a herd,^ all in a heap, they will fill the 
whole place with their yells and uproar, their tus- 
sling, laughter, and jostling. Now, it is necessary to 
require the observance of decorum on the part of 
our scholars; since, if we leave room anywhere for 
unmannerliness, it will get at once into the school- 
rooms and ruin everything. " ^ In this sense, a certain 
small number of rules in the Ratio, only fifteen in 
number, and very short, are directly presented to 
the students for their observance. "None of our 
students shall come to college with arms, poniards, 

1 Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. v, Exercit. lat. et grsec, 
n. 8, p. 170. 2 Sicut porcelli inter se commixti. 

3 Monumenta Germanise Psedagogica, vol. v, p. 493. 



THE CLASSICAL LITERATURES. 257 

knives, or anything else that is prohibited, according 
to the circumstances of time or place." Swords and 
daggers were part of a gentleman's personal equip- 
ment in those times. "They must abstain entirely 
from swearing, injurious language or actions, detrac- 
tion, lies, forbidden games, from places, too, that are 
dangerous, or are forbidden by the Prefect of Schools ; 
in line, from everything which is adverse to purity of 
morals." Other rules follow, equally radical for 
those times, and reconstructive of education for the 
future.^ 

For, in these days of ours, we are not accustomed 
to see students walk in and out of a lecture room as 
they choose. And many other inconveniences of the 
sixteenth century are not usual with us. But the 
reason is, that we come three hundred years later 
than those times, and are enjoying the fruits of other 
people's labors. 

An ascendency of personal tact and address, con- 
spicuous in the Jesuit teachers, is usually commented 
upon and referred to some cause or other, in them- 
selves or in the general organization of the Society. 
Omitting that, I prefer to designate one secret of con- 
trol, which is full of significance, though not so 
likely to arrest attention. It is an insensible method 
of organization, making its way among the youths 
themselves, and subserving the purpose of general 
collegiate control. There were, in all, four classes of 
auditors, mingled together, and intermingling their 
influences. That of the strongest of course prepon- 

1 Reg. Externorum Auditorum Soc. ; Monumenta Germanise Paeda- 
gogica, vol. V, p. 458. 



258 LOYOLA. 

derated. Tliere were Jesuits themselves in the higher 
courses. There were boarders, convictores, who re- 
mained for ten, or rather eleven months of the year, 
entirely under the control and direction of the Fathers. 
Among these were whole houses of Eeligious or Eccle- 
siastics. Besides, there were alumni, day scholars, 
that great body of students originally contemplated 
in the Constitution of Ignatius. These, however, 
owing to their divided life, partly at school, partly 
at home, were not found to represent, as a rule, the 
fullest effects of the education. Finally, there were 
externi, external students, such as not being entered 
on the books, still attended lectures; and to this 
category we must refer such general gatherings as 
those several thousand hearers, who were in attend- 
ance for hours, before the time, at Father Maldonado's 
lectures in Paris, and made him go out into the open 
air to satisfy all. Now, besides the bond of affection 
which attached scholars to the Professors, there was 
another bond, that of their character as Sodalists. 
This character denoted membership in the Sodality 
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a religious association 
which is most highly c@mmended in the Batio Stu- 
diorum, and which gathered into itself all that was 
excellent in the body of students. The literary and 
scientific ^^ academies" were recruited only from the 
Sodality. Thus, by a double process, an aristocracy 
of virtue and talent was created among the students 
themselves, tending not only to the maintenance of 
order, but to the active development of all those quali- 
ties which an educational system most desires. 



CHAPTEK XVII. 

EXAMINATIONS AND GRADUATION. SCHEDULE 
OF GRADES AND COURSES. 

1. All examinations, as projected by the Ratio 
Studiorum, are conducted by word of moutli. "Writ- 
ing enters the examinations, only when the written 
word itself is the subject of investigation. Thus, in 
the grades of the literary course, the composition of 
the student, from its elementary qualities of spelling, 
punctuation, grammar, up to the most varied forms 
and species of style, comes under examination for 
advancing to the next grade. But even then, after 
each of the three examiners has inspected carefully 
the written composition, and consulted the Master's 
reports of the individual's progress during the year, 
they call in the writer, submit his paper to him, and 
subject him to an oral investigation upon it. After 
that, they proceed to the other branches, all by word 
of mouth. 

In the higher courses, where style is no longer a 
matter of study, writing never appears in examina- 
tions. Written dissertations, special lectures, literary 
pieces of all kinds, composed for certain occasions, are 
merely a part thenceforth of the exercises incident to 
those courses. 

To speak here only of Grammar and the Humani- 

259 



260 LOYOLA. 

ties, eacli new-comer, on presentation of the creden- 
tials required, is examined by the Director or Prefect 
of Studies, who "places him in the class, and with 
the Professor, adapted to the boy's qualifications; in 
such a manner, however, that the young person be 
rather worthy of the class above, than unworthy of 
the class in which he is placed. " ^ It is the remark 
of the earlier critics, that " severity must be practised 
in examinations, since it is more injurious for boys to 
ascend a grade, when not ht, than, if really lit, to be 
kept where they are ; and, in addition to that, if they 
are advanced when not qualified, they create no slight 
disturbance in the upper class." ^ 

Into the lowest grade, neither youths advanced in 
age, nor boys of very tender years, are to be admitted. 
The plea that parents merely want the children to be 
in good hands is not a sufficient reason for taking 
them; the only exception is for young boys who are 
really far advanced for their years. 

These conditions of age, and sufficient preparation 
for entering the classical course, illustrate very dis- 
tinctly several features of the policy which the 
Society pursued. Father Joseph Calasanzio, a priest 
of great zeal, petitioned the Kector of the Eoman 
College, which was flourishing with more than two 
thousand students, to open some schools for the un- 
provided children of Eome. There is a Latin word 
coined from the first four letters of the alphabet, 

1 Rt. St., Reg. Praef. stud, inf., 11 ; Monumenta Germanise Paeda- 
gogica, vol. V, p. 358. 

2 Rt. St. 1586, Ratio promovendi, etc.; Monumenta Germanifie 
Psedagogica, vol. v, p. 177. 



EXAMINATIONS AND GRADUATION. 261 

for designating this elementary class of scholars, 
who are not yet qualified for literature. The word is 
abecedarii. The term is employed both in the Con- 
stitution of Loyola and in the Ratio. The Eector 
declined. Father Joseph applied to the General 
Claudius Aquaviva. He too declined; he referred to 
the Constitution of the Society, which had been dis- 
tinctly and in all its parts approved by the Popes. 
Unable to have his idea carried out by the Jesuits, 
Father Joseph opened his first "Pious School" in 
Kome, which was soon frequented by 1200 little boys, 
abecedarii. After the founder's death in 1648, his 
work spread into the vast system of Scuole Fie. In 
our times, the revised Eatio of 1832 recognizes the 
element of Preparatory Departments. It merely 
requires that they be entirely under the same juris- 
diction as the College proper.^ 

Another feature of the policy which these condi- 
tions illustrate and which they also further, is that of 
their tending to discriminate between the right kind 
of scholars and others, whose circumstances will de- 
bar them from ever reaching the ultimate end of 
higher culture. ^Miere circumstances are not propi- 
tious, neither is the culture altogether desirable. For 
what is more injurious to society at large than to have 
young people hurt in two ways, positively and nega- 
tively; positively, by placing them in a false environ- 
ment of culture, which cannot be theirs in future life ; 
negatively, by taking up with such culture all the 
time and labor which might usefully be spent in re- 
ceiving a plainer education, and reach its term in any 
1 Reg. Prsef. stud, inf., n. 8, § 12. 



262 LOYOLA. 

commonest walk of life? Besides, the liberal educa- 
tion -itself suffers prejudice ; for it is misinterpreted ; 
since it comes to be estimated then by results and by 
circumstances which do not appertain to it. Every 
system should be set on its own basis, and be built 
up subject to its own conditions. The absoluteness 
of Loyola's Constitution throughout, and of the Ratio 
Studiorum in particular, throws this policy into relief 
at every turn. 

After the boy's admission into a class, he advances 
thenceforward, either with the whole class, at the 
general and solemn promotion every year, or, if he 
excels, as the reports and the Master will determine, 
he is not to be detained in that grade, but may ascend, 
at any time of the year, after a fitting examination. 
A number of conditions, hard to realize, make this 
special promotion barely possible from the grade of 
First Grammar to Humanity, or from Humanity to 
Ehetoric.^ On the other hand, "if any one is found 
to be utterly incapable of entering the next grade, no 
account is to be taken of any petitions." 

2. In the philosophical and theological courses, 
both of which terminate in the conferring of degrees, 
the system of examinations for all students, who are 
not members of the Society, refers only to those, 
degrees, at the time when application is made for 
them. For the philosophical degree, the first prelim- 
inary is an hour's disputation with three examiners, 
on the matter of the whole course, and that in pres- 
ence of the other students. The result being satis- 

1 Rt. St., Reg. Praef . stud, inf., n. 13 ; Monumenta Germanise Pseda- 
gogica, vol. V, p. 360. 



EXAMINATIONS AND GRADUATION. 263 

factory, permission will then be granted to prepare 
for a public defence of all Philosophy. This is the 
method for the solemn form of graduation, which, in 
the old style, confers upon the successful student, 
after three years of Natural Sciences, or Philosophy, 
the title of Master of Arts. 

At this point start the three professional lines of 
Medicine, Jurisprudence, Theology. The last-named 
faculty ends in much the same manner as that of 
Philosophy, but with a much greater amplitude of 
public acts or defence, and then finally with a defence 
of all Philosophy and Theology together. This en- 
titles the defendant to the degree of Doctor of Divin- 
ity, which is conferred in the most solemn manner. 

There is a pedagogical history connected Avith the 
present subject, which it may be well to sketch in two 
stages, first, that of the sixteenth century, and 
secondly, that of the nineteenth. 

Ignatius of Loyola had legislated in his Constitu- 
tion to this effect: "In the study of Arts, courses 
shall be arranged in which the ISTatural Sciences shall 
be taught; and, for these, less than three years will 
not suffice ; besides which, another half-year shall be 
assigned the students, for repeating the matters they 
have heard, for holding public acts of defence, and 
for receiving the degree of Master. The whole 
course, therefore, shall be three years and a half, up 
to the reception of the degree." ^ Again, Ignatius had 
legislated for Divinity: ''The course of Theology 
shall be six years in length; all the matters that have 

1 Constitutiones, pars iv, c, 15, n. 2; Monumenta Germaniae Paed- 
agogica, vol. ii, p. 60. 



264 LOYOLA. 

to be read will be treated in the first four; in the 
other two, besides making a repetition, those who are 
to be promoted to the degree of Doctor will make the 
usual acts of defence." ^ 

Having this legislation before them, with the ex- 
perience of forty years to illustrate its working, the 
critics of 1586 are confronted, at the same time, with 
a set of historical facts, which seem not to be in har- 
mony Avith the legislation. While Loyola's system 
Avas obviously the organization of education, the 
facts, which they notice, show a concomitant process 
going on, in an inverse sense, towards the dissolu- 
tion of system. This, no doubt, was owing to the 
disturbed condition of the sixteenth century. Mak- 
ing an effort to bring the Ratio and the facts more 
into harmony, the critics reason in this manner : — 

" It is hard to expect everywhere that external stu- 
dents will be content to hold their acts of public 
defence, only after their course of Philosophy or 
Theology ; and that, during the half-year, or the two 
years specified beyond. For, in Italy, scarcely any 
are promoted to the degrees by our faculties, except 
our own alumni, or convictores, who cannot wait so 
long as that in expectancy, and who will readily slip 
away to Medicine or Jurisprudence; nay, they are 
alienated from us, and are offended at this severity, 
seeing that, in the other universities of Italy, they 
can most easily obtain the degree if they want it. 
In Germany, too, such intervals of protracted waiting 
are scarcely tolerated; and they rather think they 
have done something, if they have gone through a 
1 Ibid., n. 3. 



EXAMINATIONS AND GRADUATION. 265 

four-year course in Theology. And it would seem 
proper to grant them a relaxation there; otherwise, 
the men are deterred from seeking the Doctorate; so 
that Germany will have but few Catholic Doctors in 
the future ; whereas, it abounds in non-catholic Doc- 
tors, whose promotion is to be had any day. In 
France, too, the philosophers do not wait bej'Ond 
the close of the triennium to be made Masters of 
Arts; they could not put up with delay, for they are 
hurrying on to Law. The same is the condition of 
things with the German philosophers, for other 
reasons. Therefore the Eeverend Father General 
might consider whether he will dispense with the 
observance of the Constitution in the Italian and 
Transalpine Provinces; the more so, as the Consti- 
tution itself says that it is to be observed, as far as 
may be." ^ 

In accordance with this, the Ratio Studiorum is not 
absolute in its general legislation, and leaves room for 
the special conditions of different countries. A most 
distinct conception of the meaning and process of con- 
ferring degrees may be had, by consulting the typical 
constitution of an exclusively Jesuit university, as 
exhibited in the Monumenta Germcmice Fcedagogica.^ 
The third part of this document treats exclusively of 
the " Variety of Academic Degrees and the Conditions 
for Each." And it begins by saying: "As it is ex- 
pedient to confer Academic degrees on those who are 
found worthy of the same, so the utmost caution is to 
be practised, lest, at any time, they be conferred on 

1 Rt. St. 1586, De Gradibus, etc. ; Mouumenta Germania? Paeda- 
gogica, vol. V, p. 110. 2 Vol. ix, pp. 359-387. 



266 LOYOLA. 

such as would only bring the name of the Academy 
into discredit, and the degrees themselves into con- 
tempt. Wherefore no degree is ever to be conferred 
upon any one, who has not undergone all the tests 
which the customs of universities require." 

Passing on from the sixteenth century to our time, 
an important gap has to be crossed in the educational 
history of the Order. It is that of the Suppression, 
during about forty years at the end of the last century 
and the beginning of the present. These blank pages 
signify the total loss of property and position, with 
a severance in many places of the educational tradi- 
tions for almost sixty years, and the entire destruc- 
tion of them in many other parts. Besides, like 
" goods derelict, " the whole system of education which, 
by means of the Society, had passed out of a limited 
.number of mediaeval universities, and had been accom- 
modated with a home gratuitously in over seven 
hundred cities and towns of a dozen nationalities, 
was found by the Order, at its resurrection, to be 
largely in the hands of State authorities, or, at least, 
not independent of State control. Eestored, but hav- 
ing had to struggle into existence, under altered and 
unfavorable circumstances, this pedagogical system 
may be viewed with interest, as it stands towards the 
close of the nineteenth century. For this purpose 
I may be allowed to glance at it, in several parts of 
the world, under the precise aspect which I have just 
been regarding, that of endeavoring to complete its 
work of education with Academic degrees. 

In the United States, it has the same freedom of 
action as any other system of higher education, with 



EXAMINATIONS AND GRADUATION. 267 

none of the special support wliicli is given to organi- 
zations endow^ed by the State. 

In many parts of the continent of Europe, the 
property of the Order is in an habitual or chronic 
state of confiscation, and the members, as educators, 
are legally outlawed. Education can scarcely thrive 
when on the wing. 

In Austria, where the Society is fully recognized, 
its teachers are, by a cross-move, practically debarred 
from State recognition. To pass on their students 
for State degrees, it is required that they themselves 
be certified State teachers. To become such teachers, 
they must have followed in actual attendance, and 
during four years, the special course of Grammar, 
History, etc., in which their certificate afterwards 
will be recognized. Meanwhile, as Jesuits, they 
have gone through the courses which I have sketched 
in the pages of this essay ; and they are certainly, by 
this time, not to be confounded with young persons, 
who are merely prospecting some limited field of 
pedagogic activity, as the scope of their lives. Hence, 
at this most energetic and ripe period of their lives, 
they must waste four years, as if they were young 
normal scholars, in following out some one or two 
lines of pedagogical formation; and that, merely to 
have their word admitted when they pass their stu- 
dents on for the State degrees. 

In Great Britain and the dependencies of the British 
Empire there are no such harassing restrictions. 
The conditions for matriculation, and for the subse- 
quent series of examinations, in such universities as 
those of London, Calcutta, or Laval, are quite in keep- 



268 LOYOLA. 

ing with the American ideas of social liberality; 
however high and exacting otherwise may be the 
standard requisite for success, either in the pass- 
examinations or in the Honors. Nor, if special 
matriculation is again required in certain English 
universities, before entering their courses of Medicine, 
does that impose any special hardship. Hence, St. 
Francis Xavier's, Calcutta, ranks among the highest 
of what are called the " Christian schools '• of India. 
To make matters clearer, I shall take two instances, 
one from Great Britain itself, the other from the 
Dominion of Canada. 

Stonyhurst will illustrate the working of the State 
system, as coming in contact with the Ratio Studio- 
rum. The matriculation examinations at the London 
University create no special difficult}^, although the 
higher classes of the literary curriculum may be re- 
garded as under a strain, in the double effort to 
satisfy the Ratio, and to matriculate at that uni- 
versity. After matriculation, the process is consider- 
ably smoother. To take the classical or mathematical 
Honors, in the B. A. or M. A. examinations, is 
altogether in harmony with the usual course of the 
Jesuit system. At once, after the B. A. Honors, a 
good place on the Indian Civil Service list is within 
easy reach. And, in general, changes made by the 
Civil Service Commissioners have all been in the di- 
rection of adapting their competitive examinations to 
the ordinary school curriculum. In preparation for 
the military academies of Woolwich and Sandhurst, 
students follow the regular school course at Stony- 
hurst, to within two years or so of the time for 



EXAMINATIONS AND GRADUATION. 269 

entrance ; and then they merely take up their special 
course, designed for the military cadetship. The 
same is now possible with regard to the navy, since 
the age for entering that service has been some- 
what raised. And, to mention one of the courses 
which are altogether proper to the Jesuit system, that 
of Philosophy, the usual lectures of the two years' 
philosophical curriculum have only to be supple- 
mented with a few special lectures, and the students 
are ready for the philosophical pa]3ers of the B. A. 
examination, in the London University. 

Montreal exhibits the relations of Jesuit and State 
systems in a Catholic country. The University of 
Laval is at the same time chartered by the State and 
by the Pope. The Jesuit Professors in the College 
at Montreal conduct their own studies, examine their 
students, and merely send them with certificates to 
receive degrees at the University. 

Prom this history it appears, that, though the cur- 
riculum of Divinity in the Jesuit system need have 
undergone no great change during three centuries, 
beyond the usual self-accommodation of the courses 
to new and pressing questions, its curriculum of 
Philosophy has been materially affected, with refer- 
ence to the general world of students. This, as fore- 
seen in the Ratio Studiormn of 1586, and as referred 
to again in the revised Ratio of 1832, causes a double 
arrangement to be made. First, Avherever members 
of the Order are pursuing their studies, the philo- 
sophical triennium is, as a matter of course, in full 
operation, and is prolonged with individuals into a 
fourth year, for reviewing the subjects and prosecut- 



270 LOYOLA. 

ing them further; and this seminary course, if con- 
nected with a public college, remains open as ever to 
the outside world. Secondly, to meet the require- 
ments of external students, who do not desire the full 
triennium, the Provincial " will see that a course of 
Philosophy be established according to the customs 
and necessities of the country." ^ Hence a biennium, 
or two-year course, is commonly established; and, ac- 
cording to the needs or desires of the locality, it is 
conducted either in Latin or in the vernacular. 

3. Now we may review succinctly the different 
courses as conducted by the year, and as distributed 
through the week. 

THE LITERARY CURRICULUM. 

The grading is based upon the principles of a clas- 
sical education. Other branches enter a classical 
course, as completing the staple studies. But, on 
their own merits, they receive a special distribution 
of their own. The Prefect of the lower studies is 
instructed to " distribute History, Geography, the ele- 
ments of Mathematics, and whatever else is usually 
treated in these classes, in such a manner that each 
Master can satisfactorily and conveniently finish the 
matter assigned to him." This is to be done "after 
consulting the Provincial authority," which assures 
stability in the manner of organizing these branches.^ 
As to the mother tongue, the study of which is bound 
up intimately with the classic literatures, a general 

1 Rt. St., Reg. Prov., 17, § 2. 

2 Rt. St. 1832, Reg. Prref. stud, inf., n. 8, § 11. 



EXAMINATIONS AND GRADUATION. 271 

direction is given once for all to the Professors of 
these grades: "In learning the mother tongue, very 
much the same method will be followed as in the 
study of Latin." And, in the form of prelection to be 
used, they are to adopt the method specified as pecul- 
iar to the historian and the poet, which is more sum- 
mary than the prelection of the central prose author : 
" Much the same method will be followed in giving 
the prelection on classic authors in the vernacular."^ 

Lower Grammar. The grade of this class is the 
perfect knowledger of the rudiments, and an incipient 
knowledge of syntax. In Greek: reading, writing, 
and a certain portion of the grammar. The authors 
used for prelection will be some easy selections from 
Cicero, besides fables of Phsedrus and lives of Nepos. 

Middle Grammar. The grade is the knowledge, 
though not entire, of all grammar; another portion of 
the Greek grammar ; and, for the prelection, only the 
select epistles, narrations, descriptions, and the like 
from Cicero, with the Cominentaries of Csesar, and 
some of the easiest poems of Ovid. In Greek : the 
fables of JEsop, select and expurgated dialogues of 
Lucian, the Table of Cebes. 

Upper Grammar. The grade is the complete 
knowledge of grammar, including all the exceptions 
and idioms in syntax, figures of rhetoric, and the art 
of versification. In Greek : the eight parts of speech, 
or all the rudiments. For the lessons : in prose, the 
most difficult epistles of Cicero, the books De Amicitia, 
De Senectute, and others of the kind, or even some of 

1 Ibid., nn. 12, §2; 28, § 2. 



272 LOYOLA. 

the easier orations; in poetry, some select elegies and 
e]3istles of Ovid, also selections from Catullus, Tibul- 
lus, Propertius, and the eclogues of Virgil, or some 
of Virgil's easier books. In Greek: St. Chrysostom, 
Xenophon, and the like. 

Humanity. The grade is to prepare, as it were, 
the ground for eloquence, which is done in three 
ways, by a knowledge of the language, some erudi- 
tion, and a sketch of the precepts pertaining to Eheto- 
ric. For a command of the language, which consists 
chiefly in acquiring propriety of expression and 
fluency, the one prose author employed in daily pre- 
lections is Cicero; as historical writers, Csesar, Sal- 
lust, Livy, Curtius, and others of the kind; the poets 
used are, first of all, A^irgil ; also select odes of Horace, 
with the elegies, epigrams, and other productions of 
illustrious poets, expurgated; in like manner, orators, 
historians, and poets, in the vernacular. The erudi- 
tion conveyed should be slight, and only to stimulate 
and recreate the mind, not to impede progress in 
learning the tongue. The precepts will be the general 
rules of expression and style, and the special rules on 
the minor kinds of composition, epistles, narrations, 
descriptions, both in verse and prose. In G-reek : the 
art of versification, and some notions of the dialects; 
also a clear understanding of authors, and some com- 
position in Greek. The Greek j)rose authors will be 
Saints Chrysostom and Basil, epistles of Plato and 
Synesius, some selections from Plutarch; the poets, 
Homer, Phocylides, Theognis, St. Gregory Nazianzen, 
Synesius, and others like them. 



EXAMINATIONS AND GRADUATION. 273 

Rhetoric. The grade of this class cannot easily 
be defined. For it trains to perfect eloquence, which 
comprises two great faculties, the oratorical and 
poetical, the former chiefly being the object of cul- 
ture; nor does it regard only the practical, but the 
beautiful also. For the precepts, Cicero may be sup- 
plemented with Quintilian and Aristotle. The style, 
which may be assisted by drawing on the most ap- 
proved historians and poets, is to be formed on Cicero; 
all of his works are most fitted for this purpose, but 
only his speeches should be made the subject of prelec- 
tion, that the precepts of the art may be seen in prac- 
tice. As to the vernacular, the style should be formed 
on the best authors. The erudition will be derived 
from the history and manners of nations, from the 
authority of writers and all learning ; but moderately, 
as befits the capacity of the students. In Greek, the 
fuller knowledge of authors and of dialects is to be 
acquired. The Greek authors, whether orators, his- 
torians, or poets, are to be ancient and classic: 
Demosthenes, Plato, Thucydides, Homer, Hesiod, 
Pindar, and others of the kind, including Saints 
Nazianzen, Basil, and Chrysostom. 

The compilers of the preliminary Ratio throw out 
some very useful hints, relative to the work and scope 
of this class. They say, for instance, that the stu- 
dents of Rhetoric " are to be assisted with almost a 
daily exposition of some poet, to derive thence the 
variety and richness of poetic imitation and diction." 
Again, " nothing dialectic is to be made the subject of 
prelection in this class, since rhetoricians are to be 
kept as far away as possible from the style, invention, 



274 LOYOLA. 

and spirit of dialectics." "Two or three years" are 
spoken of as spent in this grade. ^ At any rate, "all 
our day-scholars or boarders ^ should spend one year 
in Ehetoric before they enter on Philosophy; this 
should be brought home to their parents. The others, 
who attend our courses from outside,^ should be per- 
suaded to do the same."'* If they still insist upon 
entering the philosophical curriculum at too early an 
age, special means are suggested to discountenance 
such a practice. 

All these five grades are evidently so connected as 
not to overlap one another. Neither are they to be 
multiplied, except in the sense of allowing more than 
a single division, when scholars are very numerous. 
If all the grades cannot be maintained in any place, 
"the higher ones, as far as possible, are to be kept, 
the lower being dispensed with."^ 



THE PHILOSOPHICAL CURRICULUM. 

With the side branches sufficiently learned, with the 
boy's native talents "stimulated" or "cultivated," as 
the Ratio frequently expresses itself,^ and his memory 
enriched with the fullest materials for style in two 
languages, Latin and the vernacular, while Greek has 
subsidized his culture, the student enters on the study 
of Philosophy, using scholastic Latin as the vehicle 
of expression. 

1 Ibid. 2 Alumni sive convictores. 

3 Externi. * Reg. Rect., n. 12. 

5 Reg. Pro v., n. 21, § 4. 

6 Excitetur ingenium ; excolatur ingenium. 



EXAMINATIONS AND GRADUATION. 275 

This instrument for the expression of philosophical 
thought possesses the qualities of subtlety, keenness, 
and precision, which the dialectic practice of all uni- 
versities had tended to develop in it, from the twelfth 
century onwards. With the addition of Cicero's ful- 
ness and richness, which the colleges cultivated with 
so much ardor, the scholastic Latin of men like Molina, 
Eipalda, Liberatore, Franzelin, and so many others, 
has flourished to a degree of literary excellence. 

Mathematics runs parallel with the course of Phi- 
losophy, and upon that branch of science there is a 
rather eloquent passage in the Ratio of 1586.^ Phys- 
ics was always included in the Aristotelian philoso- 
phy. The career of Modern Physics was then in the 
future. But, as in Mathematics pure and applied, 
the courses were always advanced to the foremost 
rank, and in Arithmetic and Geometry we notice that, 
as early as 1667, a single public course, under the 
direction of Jesuits at Caen, numbered four hundred 
students,^ so, in the middle of the next century, the 
eighteenth, we find physical cabinets in regular use, 
and experimental lectures given to the classes by the 
Professors of Physics.^ The basis of the study is 
thus laid down in the rules of the revised Ratio: 
"The Professor is to expose theories, systems, and 
hypotheses, so as to make it clear what degree of cer- 
titude or probability belongs to each. Since this 

1 De Mathematicis ; Monumenta Germaniae Paedagogica, vol. v, 
p. 141. 

2 Cretineaii-Joly, Histoire de la Compagnie, torn, iv, ch. 3, p. 202. 

3 Compare the ordinance for the upper German Province, 1763, 
n. 7 ; Monumenta Germanise Paedagogica, vol. ix, p. 441. 



276 LOYOLA. 

faculty makes new progress every day, the Professor 
must consider it part of liis duty to know tlie more 
recent discoveries, so that in his prelections he may 
advance with the science itself. " ^ The general as- 
semblies had legislated on this subject, as I indicated 
before; assigning its proper place in Philosophy to 
what they called " the more pleasant " or the " lighter " 
form of Physics. Indeed, Philosophy itself in the 
course of three centuries came to feel many new needs 
and submitted to new lines of treatment. 

First Year. Logic and General Metaphysics. 
One Professor: eight hours a tueek. Introductory 
sketch of Philosophy. Dialectics or Minor Logic: 
ideas, judgment, reasoning. Logic Proper: The cri- 
teria of truth; species of knowledge, and general 
rules of criticism and hermeneutics. General Meta- 
physics or Ontology: The notions of being and the 
categories. Mathematics. One Professor: six hours 
a tveek. All that prepares for the Physics of the fol- 
lowing year, viz., algebra, geometry, plane and spher- 
ical trigonometry, and conic sections. This rapid 
course, in so short a time, supposes that the matter 
is not entirely new, but has been studied already in 
the literary course. 

Second Year and part of the Third. Special Meta- 
physics. One Professor: four hours a iveek. First, 
Cosmology: The origin of the world, the elements of 
bodies, the perfection of the world, its nature and 
laws, supernatural effects and their criteria, as 
examined by philosophical principles. Secondly, 
Psychology : The essence of the human soul, and its 

1 Rt. St. 1832, Pro Physica, nn. 34-5. 



EXAMINATIONS AND GRADUATION. 277 

faculties : sensation, imagination, memory, the nature 
of intelligence and reason, appetite, will, freedom; 
the essential difference between soul and body; the 
simplicity, spirituality, and immortality of the soul; 
the union of soul and body, the nature and origin of 
ideas; the vital principle of brutes. Thirdly, ISTat- 
ural Theology: God, His existence and attributes, 
etc., as viewed by the light of human reason. Phys- 
ics. One Professor: nine hours a week. Mechanics, 
dynamics; the properties of bodies, hydrostatics, 
hydraulics, aerostatics, pneumatics; the elements 
of astronomy; light, caloric, electricity, magnetism, 
meteorology. What is not completed in this year is 
continued in the next, with the elements of natural 
history. Much of this course may have been seen in 
the literary curriculum. "The matters are not to 
be treated so exclusively from a rational standpoint, 
as to leave barely any time for experiments ; nor are 
experiments so to occupy the time, that it looks like a 
merely experimental science." Chemistry. One Pro- 
fessor : three hours a loeek. Inorganic and organic. 

Third Year. Metaphysics. One Professor: four 
hours a week. What remains of the course just de- 
scribed, under the second year. Moral Philosophy. 
One Professor : four hours a week. The end of man, 
the morality of human actions, natural law, natural 
rights and duties; the principles of public right. 
Physics. One Professor: two hours a iveek. Geol- 
ogy, astronomy, physiology. Part of the course above 
can be reserved for this year. Mathematics. One 
Professor: three hours a week. Analytical geometry 
and differential calculus. 



278 LOYOLA. 

In these courses of Natural Science, if the matter is 
not altogether new, as having been studied in the 
lower faculties, the philosophical attitude of theoretic 
criticism is quite specific throughout this curriculum. 



THE THEOLOGICAL CURRICULUM. 

As the Jesuit theologians of Cologne announced in 
their programme of 1578 that, while they followed 
St. Thomas, yet " neither all the matters, nor those 
alone which he treated," were to be handled by them; 
so, in every age, the standard adopted has been ad- 
hered to, with the same practical eye to the needs of 
the times. The reason is tlie same as those theolo- 
gians assigned; because, they said, "Every age has 
definite fields of conflict, which render it necessary 
that Theology be enlarged with a variety of newly 
disputed questions, and, in fact, that it assume a new 
form."^ In the arrangement of Scholastic Theology 
the Ratio suggests the following form : — 

Scholastic Theology. Four Years. Two Profes- 
sors: each four hours a iveek. One course. Religion 
and the Church; God in Unity and Trinity; His 
attributes, predestination: God as Creator; the An- 
gels; the creation of Man and his fall; the Incarna- 
tion; Three of the Seven Sacraments. The other 
course. Human acts, virtues, and vices; the theolog- 
ical virtues; the cardinal virtues; right and justice; 
religion; grace; the Sacraments in general; the rest 
of the Seven Sacraments. 

1 Monumenta Germanise Psedagogica, vol. ii, p. 245. 



EXAMINATIONS AND GRADUATION. 270 

Moral Theology. Two Years. One Professor: 
Jive and a half hours a week. The scope of this course 
is to form Ministers of the Sacraments. One year. 
Human acts, conscience, laws, sins, the Command- 
ments, excepting the seventh. The other year. The 
seventh Commandment, which includes contracts; the 
Sacraments, censures, the states and duties of life. 

Ecclesiastical History. Two Years. One Professor : 
iico hours a iceek. The questions, necessary and op- 
portune, in the history of each centur}^ 

Canon Law. Two Years. One Professor: tivo 
hours a tceeJc. One year. Persons, judgments, pen- 
alties. The other year. Things. 

Sacred Scripture. Two Years. One Professor: 
four hours a iceek. General prolegomena. A book 
from the Old and Xew Testament alternately. 

Hebrew. One Year. One Professor : tivo hours a 
week. Supplemented with one hour a week on Syriac, 
Arabic, Chaldaic, during four years. 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION OF TIME. 

The compilers of the preliminary Patio made an 
effort to draw up a uniform system for the distribu- 
tion of time in the various countries. But the final 
Patio preferred to leave the matter thus : " Since the 
variety of countries, times, and persons is apt to in- 
troduce variety in the order to be observed, and in the 
distribution of hours for study, repetitions, disputa- 
tions, and other exercises, as also in vacations, the 
proper authority will report to the General whatever 



280 LOYOLA. 

lie thinks more expedient in his Province, for the 
better advancement of studies, that a definite arrange- 
ment may be come to, which will meet all exigencies ; 
keeping, however, as near as possible to the common 
order of our studies."^ Accordingly, a rule of the 
General Prefect of Studies prescribes that "he lay 
down not only an order of studies, repetitions, disputa- 
tions to be observed by members of the Society, by 
our scholars, and by external students at large, under 
the direction of their Professors; but also that he 
distribute all their time, to the effect that they spend 
the hours of private study well."^ 

I shall give three sketches of actual arrangements 
for the conduct of the literary or secondary curricu- 
lum; and one normal arrangement for the two de- 
partments of superior education in Philosophy and 
Theology. The three schedules for the secondary 
course are taken from the English speaking world. 
That numbered (I), if presented in full, would read 
very much like the usual arrangement of an Ameri- 
can college. It is the method more or less adopted 
by the Jesuit colleges which centre around the St. 
Louis University in the Western States. The sched- 
ule numbered (II) represents the system of George- 
town College, and of others in the Eastern States ; it 
looks like a close adaptation of the system as pre- 
sented in these pages. Number (III) is the method 
of Stonyhurst College, England; and to it may be 
referred the Canadian system, and that of Hindustan. 
The hours indicated in this schedule include the set 

iRt. St., Reg. Prov., n. 39. 
2 Reg. Prffif. Stud., n. 27. 



EXAMINATIONS AND GRADUATION. 281 

time for studies, besides the hours of class. The set 
study time, iu a boarding college, may be taken to 
average four and a half hours a day; other hours may 
be added thereto, from free study time, or hours of 
superfluous recreation. The Stonyhurst arrangement 
is interesting, as being that of a faculty two hundred 
and ninety-nine years old, without any intermission 
in its career. Its original home Avas St. Omer's, 
France, where Father Parsons founded the college 
in 1592. At the suppression of the Order in France, 
1762, the college moved to Bruges in Belgium ; thence, 
in 1773, to Liege; whence, under the stress of the 
French Revolution, it took refuge in England, and 
opened its courses at Stonyhurst, Lancashire, in 1794. 
The schedule for the philosophical triennium (Su- 
perior Instruction, B) is taken from Woodstock 
College and St. Louis University; that of the theo- 
logical course (Superior Instruction, C) from Wood- 
stock. In these schedules, as well as in that not 
exhibited here for the seminary course of Literature 
(Superior Instruction, A), no material difference would 
be found to exist between one house of studies and 
another in the Society. 



282 



LOYOLA. 



DISTRIBUTION OF HOURS PER WEEK. 



Secondary Instruction. — Literary. 



I. 

Grades I.-IV. V.-VL VII. 

Four Two One 

Years. Years. Year. 

Age of Student . . . 13-16. 17-18. 19. 



SUBJECTS. 

Classics 


9. 


9. 




12,X. 


13X. 




Mathematics 


4. 


4. 


4. 


5M. 


5X. 




English and | 
Accessories) 


12. 


9. 


0. 


8. 


5. 




Natural Sciences. . 




3. 






3. 


10. 


Philosophy 






10. 






12. 



II. 

I.-IV. V.-VI. VII. 

Four Two One 

Years. Years. Year. 

13-16. 17-18. 19. 



Grades 



Age of Student 

SUBJECTS. 

Classics 

Mathematics 

English 

French 

History and Geography, 

Natural Sciences 

Philosophy 



III. 

I.-IV. V.-VII. Philosophical curriculum. 

Four Three 

Years. Years. 
11-15. 16-18. 



18. 
8>^. 
6. 
5. 



18. 
8X. 
6. 



3-6. 



Two Year Course, 
below (6). 



SCHEDULE OF INSTRUCTION. 283 



Superior Instruction. — (A) Literary. 

SEMINARY COURSE. 

Literature Two Years For Members of the Order. 

Superior Instruction. — (B) Philosophical. 

TRIENNIAL COURSE. 

Years L IL IIL 

Subjects of Courses. 
Philosophy : 

Logic, 1 ^ f. /Di8pu-\ 

Ontology.; ^^i)^ tation )• 

Cosmology, ) . o /Dispu-\ 

Psychology.} t + o^^ Nation J- 

Psychology, | . o /Dispu-\ 

Natural Theology. J * v tation ; 

Moral Philosophy 4 + 3 " 

Mathematics : 
Algebra, Geometry, | ^^ 
Trigonometry. | • -o. 

Analytical Geora- ) o 
etry. Calculus. J 

Mechanics 9 (Three Months) . 

Physics 9 (seven Months) . 

Chemistry 3 (Ten Months) . 

Geology, Astronomy, | o 

Physiology. j 

Specialties Outside of this Triennium. 

biennial course. 

(a) Two Year Curriculum, included in the Triennium. 
(6) Similar Curriculum, conducted separately in English. 



284 



LOYOLA. 



Superior Instruction. — (C) Theological. 



SEXENNIAL COURSE. 



III. 



IV. 



+5 8+5 i 

(Disp.). (Disp.). 
5X bX 

2 2 



Years I. 

Subjects of 

Courses. 
Scholastic \ 8 

Theology. J 
Moral Theology, 
Ecclesiastical | 

History. J 

Canon Law . . 2 2 

Sacred ) 4 4 

Scripture, j 
Hebrew 2 

Syriac, Ara- 1 i i i 

bic, Chald. { ' ' ^ ^ ^ 

Specialties Outside of this Sexennium. 



V. 



VI. 



f 5 8 + 5 Biennium of General 
(Disp.). (Disp.) Repetition, Philo- 
^ ^ sophical and Theo- 

logical ; and Special 
Seminary Work. 



Superior Instruction. — (D) Law. 
Conducted by a Faculty not of the Order. 



Superior Instruction. — (E) Medicine. 
Conducted by a Faculty not of the Order. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

It will not have escaped the attentive reader, that 
almost all the history, pedagogic or otherwise, which 
has been sketched in this essay, falls within the lines 
of what has been called the Counter-Reformation; 
and some portion of it belongs to what is styled, in 
the present century, the Counter-Revolution. For 
this reason, if the facts recorded seem at all new, he 
will discern the reason. They have lain outside of 
one of the beaten paths in history. 

Beyond the facts of evolution, as they may have 
appeared in these pages, I do not pretend to have 
found a place for this system in any plan of pedagogic 
development, i^or do I lay claim to the far-sighted- 
ness which may discern any posthumous development, 
as the legacy of this system to the world of education. 
Politically, its place has often been assigned to it 
summarily by main force. But, pedagogically, too, 
the day may come, when gathered to the other re- 
mains which moulder in the past, it can look down 
from a grade and place of its own in evolution, and 
look out, like others, on a progeny more favored than 
itself, the fair mother of fairer children; even as the 
old university system of mediaeval Europe, particularly 
that of the great University of Paris, can look down 

285 



286 LOYOLA. 

from its silent and solemn place in history, as the 
direct progenitor of the Ratio Studiorum. " We, too, 
have been taught by others," said Possevino in 1592. 
Indeed, as is evident, the last thing which the system 
ever seems to dream of, which never, in fact, crosses 
the path of its intellectual vision, is that it is play- 
ing the role, perchance, of a pedagogic adventurer, or 
courting notice by some new and striking departure. 
No doubt, in its integrity, it is singularly the system 
of the Jesuits, and, in a multitude of practical ele- 
ments, it embodies the elaborate experience of one 
practical organization of men. But, none the less, if 
we look down for its foundations, we pass through 
the Kenaissance of Letters, and find the traditions of 
scholastic Europe; and further down still, in the 
stratification of history, we come to the principles of 
education as defined by Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. 
As to its ulterior evolution, I may designate two 
forms which the system has been invited to as- 
sume. Kather, I may point to an epoch in its 
history, at which general and universal education 
divided off into two lines ; and, by one or other way, 
almost all the secondary and superior education, 
which prevails amongst us, reaches our present time. 
The principles adopted on one side, however extrava- 
gant they may have been at their first adoption and 
in all the glow and fervor of a new departure, will 
certainly recommend themselves to some. The other 
was practically, if it has not as yet been formally, 
adopted by the Order as a continuation of its old 
method, and as a revision in the nineteenth century 
of what itself had laid down in the fifteenth. I will 



CONCLUSION. 287 

quote, to explain one of the movements, a writer, 
M. Drevon, whom I cited once before,^ chiefly because 
he is quite recent, and also because he is entirely out 
of sjanpathy with the system of the Jesuits. For 
the other, I Avill quote one of the latest Generals of 
the Society of Jesus, Father John Eoothaan. 

When the Jesuit colleges, more than ninety in 
number, were abruptly closed in France, then, says 
the first writer, "the departure of the Jesuits was 
the occasion of a noisy demonstration against the 
instruction which had been imparted in the colleges. 
A multitude of books ^ were at once seen pouring into 
the market, presenting plans for a new system of 
education, which should be more in keeping with the 
progress of Science and Philosophy. Men of the 
gravest authority, like the President Eoland, did not 
disdain to occupy themselves with these matters, and 
to enter into details : ' The moment was come, ' cried 
one of them, 'to set up furnaces, to add bellows 
thereto, and initiate scholars into the doctrine of 
gases.' ^ The reaction was so much the more violent, 
as spirits had been the longer suppressed. It went 
even beyond the just measure, as hax)pens almost 
always in such circumstances ; so that, says a contem- 
porary writer,* children, properly instructed, ought to 
have become, at the age of fifteen, agriculturists suf- 
ficiently well qualified, intelligent naturalists, pru- 
dent economists, shrewd business men, enlightened 
politicians, profound metaphysicians, prodigious geom- 

1 Chapter vi, above, p. 96. 

2 By M. D'Alembert, M. L'Abbe' de Condillac, and others. 

3 L'Abbe' Proyart, De L'Education Publique. * Id., ibid. 



288 LOYOLA. 

etricians, without prejudice to writing and drawing, 
to universal geography, and ancient as well as modern 
history; without prejudice to the French language, 
English also and German and a little Latin ; and again 
without prejudice to music and heraldry, to dancing 
and fencing, to horsemanship, and, above all, to swim- 
ming. But peox)le had not long to wait before deplor- 
ing such excess. All this agitation proved unfortu- 
nately sterile; and as I have just said, on the eve of 
the French Kevolution, secondary education had not 
taken a step forward during fifty years. . . . 

" It came to a new birth in 1808, and found itself 
very much where it had been, before this long sleep. 
Napoleon declared that the new method of the Uni- 
versity was very like that of the ancient University 
of Paris; only that the courses 'left something to 
desire with regard to drawing, modern languages, 
geography, history, and especially mathematical and 
physical sciences.' This was progress, no doubt, and 
it is well to grant it. But Napoleon is mistaken, 
when he pretends that the new University is a child 
of the ancient one. It is preeminently a child of 
the Jesuits. For, as we have remarked, the Jesuits, 
at the beginning, took great care to make no innova- 
tions. They accepted, as they found them, the old 
methods, introduced little by little their own mode of 
procedure, an alteration most calculated to assure 
their influence and their success. The grand old 
University which went down to the second rank, so 
to say, in public education, submitted to the influence 
of its detested and triumphant rivals, and, in spite of 
itself, it allowed itself to be permeated by their 



CONCLUSION. 289 

methods. Hence, in 1808, at the moment when 
Nai)oleon dreams that he is reestablishing the Uni- 
versity, the ideal of public instruction was a mixture 
of the old university traditions and the empiric 
methods of the Jesuits." ^ 

It does not come within the scope of this writer to 
indicate how, from this historical point of divergence, 
the modern practical method of instruction came to 
be fully organized. Each system went its own way. 
I pass on to the other line, or rather back to the Jesuit 
Ratio ; and I will merely point out what process of 
adjustment it then underwent. 

In 1832, Father Roothaan, General of the Society, 
addressed an encyclical letter to the Order. To give 
an abstract of it, he says : " In the very first assembly 
after the restoration of the Society, a petition had 
been received from the Provinces, and daily ex- 
perience since then has shown it to be more and more 
necessary, that the System of Studies should be accom- 
modated to the exigencies of the times. After a con- 
sultation, involving much labor and accurate study, a 
form of revised Ratio has been drawn up, which is now 
offered for use and practice, in order that after being 
amended again if necessary, or else enlarged, it may 
receive the sanction of a universal law. The under- 
taking was approached with the greatest reverence 
for a System which had been approved by two cen- 
turies of successful operation, and which had been 
extolled, not unfrequently, by the very enemies of 
the Order. 

1 Histoire d'un College Municipal, etc., Bayonne; par J. M. Dre- 
von, 1889; last chapter, Reforme et conclusion, pp. 443 seq. 



290 LOYOLA. 

^' Of the novelties which had been introduced into 
the method of educating youth, during the last lifty 
years or more, was it forsooth possible that all could 
be approved and adopted in our schools? New 
methods and new forms invented day after day, a 
new arrangement of matter and of time, often self- 
contradictory and mutually repugnant — how could 
all this be taken as a rule for our studies? 

' ' In the higher schools or in the treatment of the 
graver studies, it is a subject of lamentation with pru- 
dent men that there is no solidity but much show, — 
an ill-arranged mass of superfluous knowledge, very 
little exact reasoning — ; that the sciences, if you ex- 
cept Physics and Mathematics, have not made any true 
progress, but are in general confusion, so that where 
the final results of truth are to be found scarcely ap- 
pears. The study of Logic and severe Dialectics is 
almost in contempt, whence errors come to be deeply 
rooted in the minds of men who are not otherwise 
illiterate; and these errors, by some fatality or other, 
are made much of, as if they were ascertained truths, 
and they are lauded to the skies, because nothing is 
treated with strictness and accuracy, no account is 
made of definitions and distinctness of reasoning. 
Thus, tasting lightly of philosophical matters, young 
men go forth utterly defenceless against sophistry, 
since they cannot even see the difference between a 
sophism and an argument. 

^^In the lower schools, the object kept in view is to 
have boys learn as many things as possible, and learn 
them in the shortest time, and with the least exer- 
tion possible. Excellent! But that variety of so 



CONCLUSION. 291 

many things and so many courses, all liglitly sipped 
of by youth, enables them to conceive a high opinion 
of how much they know, and sometimes swells the 
crowd of the half-instructed, the most pernicious of 
all classes to the Sciences and the State alike. As to 
knowing anything truly and solidly, there is none of 
it. Something of everything: nothing in the end.^ 
Kunning through the courses of letters in no time, 
tender in age, with minds as yet untrained, they take 
up the gravest studies of Philosophy and the Higher 
Sciences; and, j)ossessing themselves therein of 
scarcely any real fruit, they are only captivated by 
the enjoyment of greater liberty; they run headlong 
into vice, and are soon to become teachers themselves 
of a type, which, to put it as gently as possible, I 
will call immature. 

^'As to the methods, ever easier and easier, which 
are being excogitated, whatever convenience may be 
found in them, there is this grave inconvenience; 
first, that what is acquired without labor adheres but 
lightly to the mind, and what is summarily gathered 
in is summarily forgotten ; secondly, and this, though 
not adverted to by many, is a much more serious in- 
jury, almost the principal fruit of a boy's training is 
sacrificed, which is, accustoming himself from an 
early age to serious application of mind, and to 
that deliberate exertion which is required for hard 
work. 

' ' In some points, however, which do not concern the 
substance of education, the necessities of our times 
require us to modify the practice of our predecessors. 

1 Ex omnibus aliquid: in toto nihil. 



292 LOYOLA. 

And to consult the requirements of such necessities, 
far from being alien to our principles, is altogether 
in keeping with the Institute. 

' ' In the superior courses, how many questions are 
there which formerly never entered into controversy, 
which now are vehemently assaulted, and must be 
established by solid arguments, lest the very founda- 
tions of truth be sapped! Therefore the questions 
which are alive call for special discussion, solution, 
refutation. 

' ' In Physics and Mathematics we must not i^rove 
false to the traditions of the Society, by neglecting 
these courses which have now mounted to a rank of 
the highest honor. If many liave abused these 
sciences to the detriment of religion, we should be 
so much the farther from relinquishing them on that 
account. Eather. on that account, should the mem- 
bers of the Order apply themselves with the more 
ardor to these pursuits and snatch the weapons from 
the hands of the foe, and Avith the same arms, which 
they abuse to attack the truth, come forward in its 
defence. For truth is ahvays consistent with itself, 
and in all the sciences it stands erect, ever one and 
the same; nor is it possible that what is true in Phys- 
ics and Mathematics should contradict truth of a 
higher order. 

^^Finall}^, in the method of conducting the lower 
studies, some accessory branches should have time 
provided for them, especially the vernacular tongues 
and literatures. But the study of Latin and Greek 
letters must always remain intact and be the chief 
object of attention. As they have always been the 



CONCLUSION. 293 

principal sources, exhibiting the most perfect models 
of literary beauty in precept and style, so are they 
still. And, if they were kept more before the eyes 
and mind, we should not see issuing from the press, 
day after day, so many productions of talented men, 
with a diction and style no less novel and singular, 
than are the thoughts and opinions to which they 
give expression. The commonalty regard them with 
admiring awe and stupor; but men of knowledge and 
correct taste look with commiseration and grief on 
these unmistakable signs of an eloquence, no less de- 
praved than the morals of the times. 

^^The adaptation of the Ratio Studiorum, therefore, 
means that we consult the necessities of the age so 
far as not in the least to sacrifice the solid and cor- 
rect education of youth." ^ 

This is the substance of a document not unworthy 
of the letters and ordinances in behalf of education, 
issued by a long line of experienced and learned 
judges in the art of training youth. The modifica- 
tions made in the old Ratio have been few; and I 
have taken note of them in the preceding analysis. 

So then the edifice of the past stands, with the 
latest modifications introduced into its facade by the 
spirit of the present. As the monumental structures 
which stud the soil of Europe, and are set amid 
royal parks or rich fields of waving grain, have been 
tributes of devotion from princes of the church or 
princes of the land, and are not only the memorials 
of kings or peoples, but are especially the architec- 

1 Epistola P. Roothaan, 1832; Monumenta Germanife Psedagogica, 
vol. V, p. 228 seq. 



294 LOYOLA. 

tiiral record of centuries; so a system recognized in 
history as great, elevated in tlie order of highest 
human achievement, that of educating humanity, and 
resting on the basis of oldest traditions and the wisdom 
of the remotest past, has not been the work of an 
ordinary individual, nor of a day. Masters in their 
art, and centuries in their duration, have combined to 
build it up, a monument of the practice and theory of 
generations. With devoted zeal and prudence, secu- 
lar communities, and even pagans in times far gone 
by, had brought the stones, and contributed tithes to 
the erection of the fabric. But it is only too well 
known that Ecclesiastics and Religious men have 
been the architects of the monument as it stands. 
And they did not build better than they knew; for 
their structure is precisely one of knowledge, chiefly 
of divine knowledge, raised into a consistent theory, 
and honored by the most practical use. So the 
very first sentence in the Ratio Studiorum, speaking 
of the "abundant practical fruit to be gathered 
from this manifold labor of the schools," mentions 
that fruit as being "the knowledge and love of the 
Creator." 

I may be permitted then to close this work by 
quoting their OAvn poetry, which is inscribed on a 
statue of Christ. The statue overlooks a park in 
front of it, and the fields hard by, and the rich garden 
of studious youth, within the college walls alongside. 
Thus one inscription reads : — 



CONCLUSION. 295 

TIBI • HAEC • ARVA • RIDENT • ATQUE • AGGERE 

COMPLAXATO • HAE • FLORIBUS • NITEXT • AREOLAE • ET 

PUBES • UXDIQUE • ACCITA • VIRTUTIBUS 

SCIEXTIIS • QUE • ADOLESCIT.-^ 



And again the granite reads : 



QUAS • CIRCUM • CERXIS • CHRISTO 
URXAE • FLORIBUS • HALAXT • XE • CARPE 



1 For Thee these meadows smile, and, on the hill-top smoothed 
away, these heds bedeck themselves with flowers ; and the youth 
from every clime unfolds, in virtue and in science, the hopes of 
Christian manhood. 

2 The urns thou see'st around breathe the fragrance of their 
flowers to Christ. Pluck them not, with hand unhallowed, who- 
soe'er thou be. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX, 



INDICATIXG SOME OF THE SOURCES AND OTHER 
WORKS, MORE EASY OF ACCESS. 



Pachtler, G. M., S. J. : Ratio atque Institutio Studionim, 
1586 ; Ratio Studiorum, 1599, 1832 ; and other pedagogical 
documents : — Comprised in Moxumexta Germanise P.eda- 
GOGicA, vols, ii, V, ix (to be followed by others) ; Berlin, 
A. Hofmann & Co., 1887. 

JouvANCT, Jos., S. J. : Ratio Discendi et Docendi pro Magistris 
Scholarum Inferionim, 1 vol. 12mo ; Avignon, Fr. Seguin, 
1825. 

Sacchixi, Franc, S. J. : Parsenesis ad Magistros Scholarum 
Inferiorum Soc. Jes. ; Protrepticon ad Magistros Scholarum 

Inferiorum Soc- Jes. Judde, Claude, S. J.: Instruction 

pour les Jeunes Professeurs qui enseignent les Humanites : — 
Comprised in Manuel des Jeunes Professkurs, 1 vol. 18mo ; 
Paris, Poussielgue-Rusand, 1842. 

Cr£tineau-Joly, Monsieur M. J. : Histoire Religieuse, Poli- 
tique et Litteraire de la Compagnie de Jesus, 6 vols. 12mo ; 
3d edit. ; Paris, V. Poussielgue-Rusand, 1851. 

Maynard, Monsieur L'Abbe : The Studies and Teaching of 
the Society of Jesus, 1 vol, 8vo ; Baltimore, John Murphy & 
Co., 1855. 

The Jesuits : Their Foundation and History, by B. K, 2 vols. 
8vo ; Benziger Bros., New York, 1879. 

Genelli, Christopher, S. J. : Life of St. Ignatius of Loyola, 
1 vol. 8vo ; Benziger Bros., New York. 

297 



298 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX. 

De Eochemonteix, Camille, S. J. : Un College de Jesuites 
aux XVIIe. et XVIIP. siecles, Le College Henri IV. de la 
Fleche, 4 vols, in 8vo ; Le Mans, Leguicheux, 1889. 

Daniel, Charles, S. J. : Les Jesuites Instituteurs de la Jeu- 
nesse Fran^aise, au XVIF. et au XVIIIe. siecle, 1 vol. 
12mo; Paris, Victor Palme, 1880. 

De Backer, Augustin, S. J. : Bibliotheque des Ecrivains de 
la Compagnie de Jesus, on Notices Bibliographiques 1° de 
Tous les Ouvrages Publics par les Membres &c., 2^ des Apo- 
logies, des Controverses Religieuses, des Critiques Litteraires 
et Scientifiques Suscitees a leur sujet ; 3 large folios (see 
above, page 134) ; Liege, chez I'Auteur, A. De Backer; Paris, 
cliez I'Auteur, C. Sommervogel, 1869. Only 200 copies were 
struck off ; it is embodied and amplified in the following, now 
in process of publication : — 

Sommervogel, Carlos, S. J. : Bibliotheque de la Compagnie 
de Jesus : — Premiere partie, Bibliographie ; seconde partie, 
Histoire. Bibliographie, tom. i, Abad-Boujart, in 4to, a 
double colonne, 1928 col. ; Bruxelles, Oscar Schepens, 16, 
rue Treurenberg ; Paris, Alphonse Picard, 82, rue Bonaparte, 
1890. 

Wetzer und Welte's Kirchenlexicon : 2d edit., by Cardinal 
Hergenroether and Dr. F. Kaulen ; vol. vi, "Jesuiten," col. 
1374-1424 ; Freiburg, Benjamin Herder, 1889. 



Typography by J. S. Cushing & Co., Boston, U.S.A. 
Presswork by Berwick & Smith, Boston, U.S.A. 



THE GREAT EDUCATORS. 

Edited by Nicholas Murray Butler, Ph.D. Sold 
separately. Each vol., i2mo, net, $i.oo. 

A series of volumes giving concise, comprehensive accounts 
of the leading movements in educational thought, grouped' about 
the personalities that have influenced them. The treatment of 
each theme is to be individual and biographic as well as 
institutional. The writers are well-known students of education, 
and it is expected that the series, when completed, will furnish a 
genetic account of ancient education, the rise of the Christian 
schools, the foundation and growth of universities, and that the 
great modern movements suggested by the names of the Jesuit 
Order, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Froebel, Herbart, Dr. Arnold and 
Horace Mann, will be adequately described and criticised. 

ARISTOTLE, and the Ancient Educational Ideals. By 
Thomas Davidson, M.A , LL.D. Ready. 

AL.CUIN, and the Rise of the Christian Schools. By Andrew 
F. West, Ph.D., Professor of Latin and Pedagogics in 
Princeton University. iVearly Ready. 

ABELARD, and the Origin and Early History of Univer- 
sities. By Jules Gabriel Compayre, Rector of the 
Academy of Poitiers, France. A' early Ready. 

LOYOLA, and the Educational System of the Jesuits. By 
Rev. Thomas Hughes, S. J., of Detroit College. Ready. 

PESTALOZZI; or, the Friend and Student of Children, 
By J. G. Fitch, LL.D., Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools. 
In Preparation. 

FROEBEL. By H. Courthope Bowen, M.A., Lecturer on 
Education in the University of Cambridge. Iti Preparation. 

HORACE MANN; or. Public Education in the United 

States. By the Editor. In Preparation. 
Other volumes on ** Rousseau ; or, Education According to 

Nature," " Herbart ; or, Modern German Education, ' and 

on " Thomas Arnold ; or, the English Education of To-day," 

are in preparation. 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers, 
743 & 745 Broadway, New York. 



UNIVERSITY 
EXTENSION MANUALS 

A NEW SERIES OF 
USEFUL AND IMPORTANT BOOKS 



EDITED BY PROFESSOR WM. KNIGHT 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers 



T^HIS Series, to be published by John Murray in 
* England and Charles Scribner's Sons in America, 
is the outgrowth of the University Extension move- 
ment, and is designed to supply the need so widely 
felt of authorized books for study and reference both 
by students and by the general public. 

The aim of these Manuals is to educate rather 
than to inform. In their preparation, details will be 
avoided except when they illustrate the working of 
general laws and the development of principles ; while 
the historical evolution of both the literary and 
scientific subjects, as well as their philosophical sig- 
nificance, will be kept in view. 

The remarkable success which has attended Uni- 
versity Extension in England has been largely due to 
the union of scientific with popular treatment, and of 
simplicity with thoroughness. 

This movement, however, can only reach those 
resident in the larger centres of population, while all 
over the country there are thoughtful persons who 



UNIVERSITY EXTENSION MANUALS 



desire the same kind of teaching. It is for them also 
that this Series is designed. Its aim is to supply the 
general reader with the same kind of teaching as is 
given in lectures, and to reflect the spirit which has 
characterized the movement, viz., the combination of 
principles with facts and of methods with results. 

The Manuals are also intended to be contributions 
to the literature of the subjects with which they re- 
spectively deal quite apart from University Extension; 
and some of them will be found to meet a general 
rather than a special want. 

They will be issued simultaneously in England and 
America. Volumes dealing with separate sections of 
Literature, Science, Philosophy, History, and Art, have 
been assigned to representative literary men, to Uni- 
versity Professors, or to Extension Lecturers connected 
with Oxford, Cambridge, London, and the Universities 
of Scotland and Ireland. 

JVOJr READY 

THE USE AND ABUSE OF MONEY 

By Dr. W. Cunningham, Trinity College, Cambridge. 
i2mo, ^r.oo, net. 
CONTENTS — poutical economy with assumptions and 

WITHOUT — INDUSTRY WITHOUT CAPITAL — CAPITALIST ERA — 
MATERIAL PROGRESS AND MORAL, INDIFFERENCE — THE CONTROL 
OF CAPITAL — THE FORMATION OF CAPITAL— THE INVESTMENT 
OF CAPITAL — CAPITAL IN ACTION — THE REPLACEMENT OF 
CAPITAL — THE DIRECTION OF CAPITAL — PERSONAL RESPONSI- 
EILITY — DUTY IN REGARD TO EMPLOYING CAPITAL — DUTY IN 
REGARD TO THE RETURNS ON CAPITAL — THE ENJOYMENT OF 
WEALTH. 

Dr. Cunningham's book is intended for those who are already 
familiar with the outlines of the subject, and is meant to help 
them to think on topics about which everybody talks. It is 



UNIVERSITY EXTENSION MANUALS 



essentially a popular treatise, and the headings of the three parts, 
Social Problems, Practical Questions, and Personal Duty, give a 
broad view of the large scope of the book. The subject is 
Capital in its relation to Social Progress, and the title emphasizes 
the element of personal responsibility that enters into the questions 
raised. The discussion is as thorough as it is practical, the 
author's main purpose being to enlighten the lay reader. The 
novelty of his point of view and the clearness of his style unite to 
make the book botli interesting and valuable. The volume con- 
tains a syllabus of subjects and a list of books for reference for 
the use of those who may wish to pursue the study further. 

THE FINE ARTS 
By G. Baldwin Brown, Professor of Fine Arts in 
the University of Edinburgh. i2mo, with Illus- 
trations, $T.oo, net. 
CONTENTS — Part I. — art as the kxpression of popu- 
lar FEEUNGS AND IDEALS: — THE BEGINNINGS OF AKT — THE 
FESTrVAL IN I're RELATION TO THE FORM AND SPIRIT OF CLASSI- 
CAL ART MEDIEVAL FLORENCE AND HER PAINTERS. Part IT. — 

THE FORMAL CONDITIONS OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION : — SOME 
ELEMENTS OF EFFECT IN THE ARTS OF FORM — THE WORK OF 

ART AS SIGNIFICANT THE WORK OF ART AS BEAUTIFUL. 

Part III. — THE ARTS OF FORM : — ARCHITECTURAL BEAUTY IN 
RELATION TO CONSTRUCTION — THE CONVENTIONS OF SCULPTURE 
PAINTING OLD AND NEW. 

The whole field of the fine-arts of painting, sculpture and 
architecture, their philosophy, function and historic accomplish- 
ment, is covered in Professor Baldwin Brown's compact but ex- 
haustive manual. The work is divided into three parts, the first 
considering art as the expression of popular feelings and ideas — 
a most original investigation of the origin and development of 
the aesthetic impulse ; the second discussing the formal conditions 
of artistic expression ; and the third treating the " arts of form " 
in their theory and practice and giving a luminous exposition of 
the significance of the great historic movements in architecture, 
sculpture and painting ^om the earliest times to the present. 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE BEAUTIFUL 

Being the Outlines of the History of Aesthetics. By 
William Knight, Professor of Philosophy in the 
University of St. Andrews. i2mo, $t.oo, net. 

CONTENTS — INTRODUCTORY — PREHISTORIC ORIGINS — 
ORIENTAL ART AND SPECULATION — THE PHILOSOPHY OF GREECE 



UNIVERSITY EXTENSION MANUALS 



— THE NEOPLATONISTS — THE GRAECO-ROMAN PERIOD — MEDIAE- 
VALISM — THE PHILOSOPHY OF GERMANY — OF FRANCE — OF 
ITALY — OF HOLLAND — OF BRITAIN — OF AMERICA. 

Not content with presenting an historical sketch of past opin- 
ion and tendency on the subject of the Beautiful, Prof. Knight 
sho\vs how these philosophical theories have been evolved, how 
they have been the outcome of social as well as of intellectual 
causes, and have often been the product of obscure phenomena 
in the life of a nation. Thus a deep human interest is given to 
his synopsis of speculative thought on the subject of Beauty and 
to his analysis of the art school corresponding to each period 
from the time of the Egyptians down to the present day. He 
traces the sequence of opinion in each country as expressed in its 
literature and its art works, and shows how doctrines of art are 
based upon theories of Beauty, and how these theories often have 
their roots in the customs of society itself. 



ENGLISH COLONIZATION AND EMPIRE 

By Alfred Caldecott, St. John's College, Cam- 
bridge. i2mo, with Maps and Diagrams, $i.oo, 
net. 

CONTENTS — PIONEER period — international struggle 

— DEVELOPMENT AND SEPARATION OF AMERICA — THE ENGLISH 
IN INDIA — RECONSTRUCTION AND FRESH DEVELOPMENT — GOV- 
ERNMENT OF THE EMPIRE — TRADE AND TRADE POLICY — SUPPLY 
OF LABOR— NATIVE RACES — EDUCATION AND RELIGION — GEN- 
ERAL REFLECTIONS — BOOKS OF REFERENCE. 

The diffusion of European, and, more particularly, of English, 
civilization over the face of the inhabited and habitable world is 
the subject of this book. The treatment of this great theme covers 
the origin and the historical, political, economical and ethnological 
development of the English colonies, the moral, intellectual, in- 
dustrial and social aspects of the question being also considered. 
There is thus spread before the reader a bird's-eye view of the 
British colonies, great and small, from their origin until the present 
time, with a summary of the wars and other great events which 
have occurred in the progress of this colonizing work, and with 
a careful examination of some of the most important questions, 
economical, commercial and political, which now affect the rela- 
tion of the colonies and the parent nation. The maps and dia- 
grams are an instructive and valuable addition to the book. 



THE LITERATURE OF FRANCE. 

By H. G. Keene, Hon. M.A. Oxon. i2mo. $i.oo, net. 

Contents: Introduction. — The Age of Infancy {a. Birth)— The Age of 
Infancy {b. Growth) — The Age of Adolescence (Sixteenth Century) —The Age 
of Glory, Part I. Poetry, etc. — The Age of Glory, Part II. Prose — The Age of 
Reason, Part I. — The Age of Reason, Part II. — The Age of 'Nature' — 
Sources of Modern French Literary Art: Poetry — Sources of Prose Fiction — 
Appendix — Index. 

French literature from the beginnings of the nation down to our own times, 
exclusive of living authors, is the broad field covered by Mr. Keene's survey. 
With so large a subject, his aim has necessarily been to preserve a proper per- 
spective and give a correct general view, and his success in this is eminent. The 
reader obtains a conception of the literature of France as a whole, and of the 
evolution and mutual relations of its various schools and stages which is not else- 
where to be obtained, though, of course, a detailed account of all French authors 
and their works has not been attempted. As the table of contents shows, the 
subject has been considered logically rather than treated as a topic for mere 
chronicle, and the chapters on the sources of the French prose fiction and poetry 
of the present time are thoroughly original in a work of the kind without being 
in the least arbitrary. Mr. Keene has, indeed, been very happy in avoiding 
dogmatism, and in refraining from obtruding " his own opinions, even of past 
writers," to quote from his preface, has given his book the air of authority and 
impersonality which is so valuable in a work whose main purpose is educational. 



THE REALM OF NATURE. 

An Outline of Physiography. By Hugh Robert Mill, 
D.Sc. Edin. ; Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; 
Oxford University Extension Lecturer. With 19 coloured 
maps and 68 illustrations. i2mo. $1.^0, neL 

Contents : The Story of Nature — The Substance of Nature — Energy, the 
Power of Nature — The Earth a Spinning Ball — The Earth a Planet — The Solar 
System and Universe — The Atmosphere — Atmospheric Phenomena — Climates 
of the World — The Hydrosphere — The Bed of the Oceans — The Crust of the 
Earth — Action of Water on the Land — The Record of the Rocks— The Conti- 
nental Area — Life and Living Creatures — Man in Nature — Appendices — 
Index. 

This happily entitled volume treats of the place of physical science in the 
sphere of human knowledge, and shows the relations to each other of the various 
special sciences. Much the larger part of the book is devoted to a description — 
in outline of necessity, but admirably luminous — of the facts regarding "the 
structure of the Universe, the form, material, and processes of the Earth, and 
the relations which they bear to Life in its varied phases." Professor Mill has a 
great gift of lucid exposition, and his book is as clear as it is comprehensive. 
Considering its range, it is a masterpiece of compression. The nineteen maps 
are specially compiled by J. G. Bartholomew, the eminent cartographer. The 
work has been reviewed with reference to the use of American students by Pro- 
fessor N. S. Shaler of Harvard University, who has supplied occasional illustra- 
tions from the point of view of the American physiographer. 



UNIVERSITY EXTENSION MANUALS 



IN PREPARATION 



THE STUDY OF ANIMAL LIFE. By T. Arthur Thomson, 
University of Edinburgh. 

THE DAILY LIFE OF THE GREEKS AND THE 
ROMANS. By W. Anderson, Oriel College, Oxford. 

THE ELEMENTS OF ETHICS. By John H. Muirhead, 
Balliol College, Oxford. 

OUTLINES OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. By William 
Renton, University ot St. Andrews. 

SHAKESPEARE AND HIS PREDECESSORS IN THE 
ENGLISH DRAMA. ByF. S. Boas, Balliol College, Oxford. 

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. By C. E. M.^llev, Balliol 
College, Oxford. 

LOGIC, INDUCTIVE AND DEDUCTIVE. By William 
MiNTO, University of Aberdeen. 

THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY. By Arthur Berry, 
King's College, Cambridge. 

THE ENGLISH POETS, FROM BLAKE TO TENNY- 
SON. By the Rev. Stopford A. Brooke, Trinity College, Dublin. 

ENERGY IN NATURE. An Introduction to Physical Science. By 
John Cox, Trinity College, Cambridge. 

OUTLINES OF MODERN BOTANY. By Prof. Patrick 
Geddes, University College, Dundee. 

THE JACOBEAN POETS. By Edmund Gosse, Trinity College, 
Cambridge. 

TEXT BOOK OF THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION. 

By Prof. Simon S. Laurie, University of Edinburgh. 

BRITISH DOMINION IN INDIA. By Sir Alfred Lyall, 
K. C. B., K. C. S. I. 

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SENSES. By Prof. Mc- 
Kendrick, University of Glasgow, and Dr. Snodgrass, Physiological 
Laboratory, Glasgow. 

COMPARATIVE RELIGION. By Prof. Menzies, University of 

St. Andrews. 

THE ENGLISH NOVEL FROM ITS ORIGIN TO SIR 
WALTER SCOTT. By Prof. Raleigh, University College, 
Liverpool. 

STUDIES IN MODERN GEOLOGY. By Dr. R. D. Roberts, 

Clare College, Cambridge. 

PROBLEMS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. By M. E. 

Sadler, Senior Student of Christ Church, Oxford. 

PSYCHOLOGY: A HISTORICAL SKETCH. By Prof. 

Seth, University of St. Andrews. 

MECHANICS. By Prof. James Stuart, M. P., Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge, 



CRITICAL NOTICES OF THE SERIES. 



" The series of manuals, of which these are the initial volumes, can 
but prove a most valuable one." — Boston Traveller. 

" We are impressed with the merits and general thoroughness of the 
' University Extension Manuals.' " — The Independent. 

"They are admirable condensations of the best thought upon the 
several subjects, and will be eagerly sought, not only by scholars, but 
by the general reader as works of reference." — Boston Transcript. 

"The Manuals are intended rather as aids to education than for 
purposes of general information. The two which have so far appeared 
are admirably adapted for that end." — Charleston News and Courier. 

" It [' The Fine Arts '] may be recommended as an eminently clear 
and sound brief statement of the aims and conditions of art, especially 
in the three forms of architecture, sculpture, and painting." — N.Y. 
Evenmg Post. 

" This series promises to be one of the most valuable sets of educa- 
tional books yet projected. The selections for it are made with singu- 
larly good judgment, and the volumes make not only a set of important 
' texts.' but solid additions to literature." — Philadelphia Telegraph. 

" The series promises to be a very useful and attractive set of books. 
The name explains itself, and the idea of a further widening of the 
extension movement by supplying students with authorized books for 
reference and detailed study is one heartily to be commended." — 
Hartford Courant. 

" The scope of these Manuals is very broad, — and the old college 
man, who has forgotten much that he studied, will be interested and 
profited if he takes up this series of booklets ; while to the young men, 
especially those whom circumstances will not allow to take a collegiate 
course, but who are anxious for a collegiate education, the series is 
invaluable." — Cincinnati Cotnmercial Gazette. 

" It is evident from the volumes already published, and from the 
announcements of others to come, that the series of ' University Exten- 
sion Manuals' is to be one of the most significant educational enter- 
prises ever undertaken in this country. The subjects treated, the names 
of the writers who have been induced to co-operate in the work, and 
the well-known qualifications of Prof. William Knight, who is the respon- 
sible editor of the series, — all unite to inspire confidence in the high 
character of this scheme for providing a sound and trustworthy system 
of popular instruction which shall at once appeal to the unlearned by 
the simplicity and directness of its aim, and to the cultivated by fresh- 
ness and originahty of method." — Boston Beacon. 









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